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WASHINGTON 

THE GREAT AMERICAN MASON 



MASONIC BOOKS BY LANIER 

THE MASTER MASON $1.00 net 

MASONRY AND CITIZENSHIP .... $1.00 net 

WASHINGTON, THE GREAT AMERICAN 

MASON $2.00 net 

THE MASTER MASON does for the Blue Lodge what 
Morals and Dogma does for Scottish Rite Masonry, 
but unlike that book it is easy to read and is not beyond 
the capacity of any Mason. It will be of great assistance 
to Masters of Lodges. It supplements the lectures, and 
contains information that can be found nowhere else. If 
newly made Master Masons will read, mark, learn, and 
inwardly digest this book, they will be greatly aided in 
understanding the principles of Masonry and the symbols 
of the Craft. 

MASONRY AND CITIZENSHIP shows what Masons 
have done for the religious freedom and political liberty 
of the world, the part Masons played in making the 
United States — something every Mason should know and 
treasure as an inspiration for the still greater work which 
Masons must do before its mission is fulfilled. The 
2,500,000 Masons in America have something more vital 
to do than learn the ritual and initiate candidates! Initi- 
ate them for what? Any Mason who reads it will find it 
a help to be a better man and a better Mason. 

WASHINGTON, THE GREAT AMERICAN MA- 
SON, presents the character of Washington and his 
Masonic acts in a concise form, gives facts not generally 
known, and of interest to every one who wishes to know 
Washington. It has many illustrations of rare interest, 
among them being the Bible on which Washington was 
obligated as a Mason, the FACSIMILE pages of the 
Minutes showing his Initiation, Passing, and Raising, and 
the FACSIMILE of the oldest Record of a Royal Arch 
Mason in the world. These priceless relics of Masonry 
are in possession of the Lodge at Fredericksburg, Va., the 
MOTHER LODGE OF WASHINGTON, of which he 
remained a member all his life. 




WASHINGTON 

Engraved from the portrait, painted from life hy Williams, for Alex- 
andria Lodge No. 22 F. d A. M., Virginia, 1794. 



WASHINGTON 

THE GREAT AMERICAN MASON 



BY 



JOHN J. LANIER 

Masonic Lecturer, and Author of "The Master Mason, 

"Masonry and Citizenship," "Washington, the 

Great American Mason," "Masonry 

and Protestantism," etc. 



MACOY PUBLISHING & MASONIC SUPPLY COMPANY 

45 John Street 

NEW YORK 



1 



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JHVlfn 



Copyright, 1922, 
By JOHN J. LANIER 

First Printing, Sept., 1922, 3000 copies 



Press of 

J. J. Little & Ivea Company 

New York, U. S. A. 



,J0V16 <^2 

O CIA 6 901 



81 



To 

CHARLES A. MacHENRY 

Whose kindness and friendship to 

me in the early days of 1922 meant 

more than he perhaps will ever know 

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 1 

MASONS TO HONOR WASHINGTON 8 



PART I 
THE MASONIC CAREER OF WASHINGTON 

Washington, the Great American Mason 12 

Washington's Initiation, Passing and Raising ... 17 
The Masonic Career of Washington 23 

The Attempt to Elect Washing:«)N Grand Master of 
THE United States 36 

After the Revolution 41 

Inaugurated as President 45 

The Death of Washington 54 

PART II 

GREAT AMERICAN MASONS CONTEMPORARY 
WITH WASHINGTON 

Revolutionary Masons 59 

Jewish Masons Who Helped Washington 69 

Right Worshipful Joseph Montfort 75 

John Paul Jones 99 

The Grove House 124 

vii 



viii CONTIiRTS 

PART III 
THE WASHINGTON FAMILY 

PAGE 

Early Settlemext at Wakefield 132 

George Washingtojt 146 

PART IV 
WASHINGTON, THE MAN AND PATRIOT 

Washington the Man 156 

Washington's Education 163 

Washington the Churchman 166 

Masonic Sentiments of Washington 170 

Doctor George Washington 174 

Washington's Will 181 

The Masonic Ideal of Wealth 193 

PART V 

WASHINGTON'S MOTHER LODGE 

Fredericksburg Lodge, No. 4, F. & A. M 203 

PART VI 
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S WILL . ; 243 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Washington Frontispiece 

Seal of American Union Lodge .... Page 29 

Jewel of the Grand Masters of Virginia, Made to 

be Worn by George Washington Facing page 32 

Washington Masonic Medal, 1797 . . . Page 38 

Arms of the Freemasons " 39 

The Bible on Which Washington Took the Oath of 

Office as President Page 46 

Where the Mother of Washington Lived at the 

Time of Her Death . . . Facing page 48 

Washington's Farewell to His Mother " " 50 

Masonic Funeral Services at Mt. Vernon . Page 56 

The Master's Chair of Royal White Hart Lodge 

Page 80 

Right Worshipful Joseph Montfort Facing page 80 

Royal White Hart Lodge, Halifax, N. C. 

Facing page 84 

Historic Old Grove House, Halifax, N. C. 

Facing page 124 

Wakefield, the Birthplace of George Washington 

Facing page 146 



X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Fac-simile of the Records Showing the Initiation, 
Passing and Raising of George Washington 

Facing page 206 

Rising Sun Tavern, Fredericksburg, Va. " " 210 

Fac-simile of the Oldest Extant Record in the 

World of the Royal Arch Degree Facing page 212 

Seal of Fredericksburg Lodge .... Page 215 

The Bible on Which Washington was Obligated as 

a Mason Facing page 216 



PREFACE 

There is much information about the Masonic 
career of Washington in various books and maga- 
zines but it is costly and so scattered that most 
Masons would never get it. I have collected much 
of this information in this book with much labor 
and heavy expense and arranged it into a story of 
Washington's Masonic life in order to show how 
important a part Masonry played in his life and in 
the making of our nation. I disclaim originality 
for much of the material in this book. I am prin- 
cipally the compiler and editor, and quote freely 
from the sources mentioned below. 

"Washington and His Masonic Compeers," by 
Hayden, published by Macoy Publishing and Ma- 
sonic Supply Company, 45 John St., New York, 
one of the first and still one of the most valuable 
and interesting books on the Masonic life of Wash- 
ington; "Washington Sesqui-Centennial Celebrated 
Nov. 5, 1902," published by the Grand Lodge of 
Pennsylvania ; "Masonic Correspondence of Wash- 
ington," by Julius F. Sachse, published by the 
Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania; "Washington, the 
Man and the Mason," by Charles H. Callahan, 

xi 



xii PREFACE 

Alexandria, Va., an invaluable book to every one 
who wishes to know the Father of our country. 
Also material compiled by Sidney Morse, Bureau 
of Social and Educational Service of the Grand 
Lodge of the State of New York. 

In addition to the above, The Old Minute Book 
of Royal White Hart Lodge, Halifax, N. C, one of 
the most valuable documents of our early Masonic 
History; "History of Halifax," by Allen; and 
Brethren of Royal White Hart Lodge. 

Records in the courthouse of Spottsylvania 
County, Va.; Lives of Paul Jones by various au- 
thors, but especially "Some Facts about John Paul 
Jones," by Junius Davis. I have used much of his 
argument and quote freely from his pamphlet. 

The writings of Marshall De Lancy Haywood, 
Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of North Caro- 
lina; and a Prize Essay on "John Paul Jones and 
the Grove House," by Miss Mildred Campbell of 
Halifax, N. C. 

Finally, the chapter on The Mother Lodge of 
Washington is largely taken from a history of 
Fredericksburg Lodge by S. J. Quin, one of its 
Past Masters and Past Grand Master of the Masons 
in Virginia. 

John J. Lanier 



WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 
AMERICAN MASON 



INTRODUCTION 

BY SIDNEY MORSE 

Executive Secretary Bureau of Social and Educa- 
tional Service, Grand Lodge of New York, 
F. & A, M. 

THE Father of our Country in his famous fare- 
well address appealed in the tenderest and 
most solemn tones against anything that might 
impair the unity of our national life. As we 
survey the Revolution in this light, we can readily 
perceive the influences for and against unity of 
thought and action. And if we compare the con- 
ditions under which our forefathers achieved 
national unity with those now existing, we shall 
find that we and our children are confronted with 
a crisis as fraught with danger to the very basis 
of our institutions as were those of 'Seventy-five 

and 'Sixty-one. 

1 



2 WASHINGTOC THE GREAT 

The sources from which were derived the spirit 
of national unity in the thirteen original Colonies 
lay deep in their common heritage of race, of lan- 
guage and literature, of religion and of law. 
The elements of disunion were nearer the sur- 
face in the institutional forms in and through 
which the common racial heritage found expres- 
sion. 

The great bulk of the colonists were of Anglo- 
Saxon blood. The language and standards of cul- 
ture were everywhere English. The English Bible 
lay open upon nearly every altar. And the basis 
of government was the principles of British con- 
stitutional and common law. 

Today, in certain sections of the United States, 
these conditions are completely reversed. Our 
population now includes many large groups of im- 
migrants from races between whom and the orig- 
inal Anglo-Saxon stock there is no community of 
sentiment and ideals and who differ equally as 
widely from one another. Many entire town and 
village communities, as well as "foreign colonies" 
in cities, continue to speak the language and accept 
the cultural standards of alien races from which 
they sprang. A bare plurality of three per cent 
of the population separates those churchmen who 
worship from the English Bible and those who 



AMERICAN MASON 3 

have upon their altars a Book of the Law in some 
foreign tongue. Should present tendencies con- 
tinue, the latter may soon become in the major- 
ity. In such a situation is it surprising that our 
ancient Anglo-Saxon principles of government 
should be called in question or that political ideas 
and systems originating with other races and in 
other parts of the world (Roman Centralism or Rus- 
sian Communism, for example) should be advo- 
cated in their stead? 

THE "melting pot" 

During the World War, the American people 
were rudely awakened to the fact that the prover- 
bial "melting pot" was not melting. The fires of 
patriotism and of zeal for liberty had sunk too low 
to fuse the vast masses of immigration from other 
lands and amalgamate them into unity with the 
American people. Certain elements of alien 
populations made war from within upon the land 
of their adoption. Others departed overseas to 
fight for their native lands. Of the draft army, 
one soldier in four spoke a foreign language and 
was unable to comprehend the simplest words of 
command in either military or industrial life. 
The very basis of our national unity seemed 
threatened with disintegration. 



4 WASHINGTOlfr THE GREAT 

Since the war, the conflict of racial, sectarian, 
and economic groups, each fighting for its spe- 
cial interests and ends, many of which are incon- 
sistent with national unity, has heen the outstand- 
ing feature of the daily news. 

What our beloved America requires is clearly 
the application of the Masonic principles of uni- 
versal harmony and brotherly love. And upon 
Freemasons rest the plain duty and obligation to 
inculcate these principles by both precept and ex- 
ample. 

UNION ORIGINATED WITH MASONS 

All Freemasons should know that the idea of the 
union of the Colonies originated in colonial Free- 
masonry, was developed and advocated by Free- 
masons, and was realized under their leadership. 
Indeed, Fremasonry was the only institution in 
colonial times in which the leaders of all the dif- 
ferent Colonies could meet upon common ground. 
The faith of nearly all was grounded in the English 
Bible. But the Puritans of New England, with 
their Congregational form of government, looked 
askance upon the Established church of the South- 
em Colonies and regarded its prelates with little 
less abhorrence than they felt for the Papacy. 
The general principles of British constitutional and 
common law were shared by all the Colonies. But 



AMERICAN MASON 5 

the institutions of local government differed widely 
in both form and spirit. The town meeting system 
of New England and the parish and vestry system 
of the Southern Colonies were as far apart as the 
poles. 

Only the Masonic Lodge was the same institution 
in every part of the Colonies. In the Lodges, the 
leaders of all the Colonies were taught the same 
principles and practiced the same polity. In their 
Lodge communications and other fraternal gather- 
ings, the Freemasons established a common meet- 
ing ground where men of the most diverse religious 
and political views, whether rich or poor, could 
come together in the spirit of harmony and mutual 
confidence. Members of all the Lodges were 
trained in the exercise of self-government under 
constitutional restraints. Indeed, a review of all 
the evidence will suggest to the thoughtful mind 
that the Masonic Lodge, derived from the ancient 
Anglo-Saxon Guild may have been the "primordial 
cell" of the American state rather than the New 
England Town Meeting derived from the Anglo- 
Saxon folk-mote. 

STABILIZING INFLUENCE OF MASONRY 

The Anglo-Saxons were themselves immigrants 
when they came to these shores and their stock was 



6 WASHINGTOIfT THE GREAT 

early enriched by strains of blood from other Euro- 
pean races. Every immigrant race has since made 
its peculiar contribution to the great cultural com- 
plex that we call America. One racial stock has 
given us its genius for religion; another the love 
of art and music, the joy of life and the sense of 
beauty. America needs and welcomes all. But the 
Anglo-Saxon alone of all modern races has evinced 
the true instinct of and capacity for self-govern- 
ment. The political institutions of our Fathers 
are still the best the world has ever seen and it is 
our plain duty as their descendants, not only to 
ourselves and our chldren but also to those who 
have sought or shall seek Freedom on our shores, 
to safeguard the institutions that underlie our civil 
and religious liberties. 

American Freemasonry is still the only common 
meeting ground for men of every faith and shade 
of political and economic opinion. The Masonic 
Lodge is still the same institution in every part of 
the United States. The leaders of Freemasonry are 
still being trained in the practice of self-govern- 
ment under constitutional restraints which derive 
their sanction from immemorial usage. In Free- 
masonry is being maintained an ideal republic of 
citizens worthy and well-qualified, wherein true 
spiritual unity is attained. 



AMERICAN MASON 7 

The Masonic institution, in short, is the greatest 
stabilizing influence in American life and Free- 
masons should study their priceless heritage from 
the Fathers in order that their influence may always 
be consistently exerted in accordance with the high- 
est Masonic ideals. 



MASONS TO HONOR WASHINGTON 

IN 1920 Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4, Fredericks- 
burg, Va., Washington's Mother Lodge, of 
which W. H. Rice was Worshipful Master at that 
time, began a movement to make November 4th, 
the day on which George Washington was made a 
Mason, a national Masonic holiday. It was begun 
by asking the Grand Master of Masons in Virginia 
to request the subordinate Lodges in Virginia to 
fittingly celebrate George Washington's Masonic 
birthday, November 4th. Brother Thomas Savage 
Clay, a member of Astor Lodge, New York City, 
with his untiring zeal and activity and with the help 
of other brethren, took up the work in New York 
with such success that in 1920 the Grand Lodge 
of New York celebrated November 4th, the Ma- 
sonic birthday of Washington, the Father of our 
Country. 

On this occasion, a delegation from Fredericks- 
burg Lodge, was present and brought the Bible 
on which Washington was obligated as a 

Mason and the old minute book containing 

8 



WASHINGTON 9 

the record of his initiation, passing and raising. 
A delegation from St. John's Lodge, New York 
City, brought the Bible on which Washington 
took the oath of office as President of the United 
States, and these two Bibles were placed side by 
side on the altar of the Grand Lodge of New York. 

At this time also George Washington Lodge of 
New York City invited the delegation from Freder- 
icksburg Lodge to be their guests at a reception in 
the Pennsylvania Hotel and Fredericksburg Lodge 
was presented with a loving cup in commemoration 
of the 168th anniversary of the initiation of Wash- 
ington as a Mason. 

The Grand Lodge of Virginia at its meeting in 
Richmond, in 1921, approved the recommendation 
of Grand Master William G. Gait that all Lodges 
of that jurisdiction commemorate the date on which 
the "Father of his Country" first saw Masonic 
Light, the time and manner of such celebrations to 
be left to the discretion of the subordinate Lodges. 

In 1922, at the suggestion of Brother Stearns, 
Master of Fredericksburg Lodge, a memorial was 
presented by Fredericksburg Lodge to the Grand 
Lodge of Virginia "to make November 4th of each 
year a Masonic holiday, requesting all subordinate 
Lodges under your jurisdiction suitably to observe 
the same, it being the Masonic birthday of Brother 



10 WASHINGTOMr THE GREAT 

George Washington." This was adopted by the 
Grand Lodge of Virginia. 

In presenting the minority report on this 
memorial to the Grand Lodge of Virginia, Brother 
John G. Dudley, Master of Cherrydale Lodge, 
said: 

"George Washington's birthday, February 22d, has no 
Masonic significance. November 4th, the day on which 
Washington was made a Mason in Fredericksburg Lodge, 
belongs exclusively to Masons. February 22d, his nat- 
ural birthday, belongs to the nation as a nation. 

"Masons throughout the English-speaking world, and 
more particularly in the United States of America, should 
know the great part that Masons played in making Amer- 
ica; that the great men who made this nation were Ma- 
sons, that American democracy was born in the Masonic 
Lodge. 

"The great problems of America at the present time is 
the making of American citizens out of our large and 
increasing number of immigrants and their offspring. 
The Masonic Lodge must take the lead in this great and 
patriotic work, and this can be done in no better way 
than by making November 4th a Masonic national holi- 
day in which the great and controlling part Masonry 
played in making Washington what he was, is portrayed, 
and fittingly as well as appropriately remembered and 
celebrated by Masons. 

"We cannot know too much about Washington the 
Mason, and Washington the man. George Washington is 
the apotheosis of all that is Masonic and all that is 



AMERICAN MASON 11 

patriotic in America. For the foregoing reasons, and 
many others that could be adduced, I heartily recommend 
the adoption of November 4th as a Masonic holiday in 
Virginia, and that other Grand Masonic Jurisdictions be 
asked to do likewise." 

At the present writing, the Grand Lodges of Vir- 
ginia, New Jersey and Oklahoma have adopted No- 
vember 4th as a Masonic holiday, a fact which will 
play a great part in the Americanizing movement 
which was begun by the Masons of Virginia and 
New York in 1920. Virginia Masons have only 
one regret, and that is that Oklahoma was the first 
to make November 4th a Masonic holiday. Vir- 
ginia joins Oklahoma, New Jersey and New York 
in saying to the other Grand Jurisdictions of 
America: "Let the good work of making 100 per 
cent Americans go on." 



PART I 
THE MASONIC CAREER OF WASHINGTON 



WASHINGTON, THE GREAT AMERICAN 
MASON 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, the great American 
Mason, embodied in his life and character 
the ideals of a great and free people. He was 
a concrete example of the law that nations incarnate 
their culture, civilization, and ideals in their 
greatest citizens, as Rome did in Caesar, a soldier 
and statesman; Athens in Socrates, a philosopher 
and patriot; and America in Washington, "first in 
war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his 
countrymen." 

Shall the name of Washington ever be heard 
By a freeman and thrill not his breast? 

Is there one out of bondage that hails not the word 
As the Bethlehem star of the West? 

In Masonry all men meet upon the level, and 

deem the son of the prince no better than the son 

12 



WASHINGTON 13 

of the peasant, unless he has personal qualities that 
make him preeminent. That Washington, the 
statesman, the soldier and Mason, possessed these 
qualities is accepted by all that have an eye to see, 
a heart to feel, and a mind to understand. To look 
upon such a character is an inspiration to us today, 
and his career is prophetic of greater achievements 
in the sphere of human energy and moral en- 
deavor. 

The Masonic Lodge is the only place in the 
world where the restraints of rank and official posi- 
tion can be thrown aside, and men meet on perfect 
equality. In the Lodge at Fredericksburg, during 
the World War, the Colonel of a regiment of the 
Marines and a private were initiated at the same 
time. When the private found himself in the pres- 
ence of his Colonel, he clicked his heels together 
and saluted his Colonel. He was told that he could 
not do that in a Masonic Lodge, for in the Lodge no 
official rank or position is recognized. In the 
Lodge he and his officers, even the Commanding 
General of the Army, meet simply as men. This 
is why Masonry appeals so powerfully to such men 
as Roosevelt. In the Lodge at Oyster Bay he met 
the gardener of an estate adjoining his own in the 
freest social intercourse; the only place where he. 
President of the United States, could enjoy such in- 



14 WASHINGTOIVTHE GREAT 

formality without embarrassment, and misunder- 
standing and misinterpretation by the public. 

The name of Washington is cherished not only 
in the history of the nation, but of mankind. His 
work, after the passing of years, is a potent force 
for the enrichment of humanity and the enlarge- 
ment of political freedom. His influence is the 
property of the world, the legacy of all those who 
love liberty or who are struggling to attain the 
birthright of independence and broader citizenship. 

But his fame is the sacred trust of Masonry. 
His name is inscribed on our imperishable records; 
it is written in letters of gold on our Royal Arch, 
and has been dowered and knighted with the endur- 
ing title of Brother and Companion. 

In youth he trod the tessellated floor of the 
Temple and passed beyond the veils for further 
light; in maturer age he acknowledged the high 
relationship; and, in the strength and decline of 
years, he deemed it an honor to take part in the 
moral enterprise and solemnities of our society. 
Our fraternity was to Washington a kindly refuge. 
He sought its calm retreat amid the anxieties and 
responsibilities of war and the administrations of 
government. Its ministries of peace and brother- 
hood brought tranquillity to his troubled spirit, 
and lightened the burdens that weighed him down. 



AMERICAN MASON 15 

There was the Temple towards which he ever turned 
and through whose opened veils there came a light 
to guide and a voice to hush discordant forces into 
the harmony of repose. 

But beside the Temple of Peace there was also 
the Temple of Work. If he wielded the mallet to 
guide and control, he used the trowel to build up 
and cement the carved stones of the fair structure. 

On the field where the battle was fought, he 
raised a Lodge, a veritable tabernacle in the wilder- 
ness, to show that peace was the issue that he 
sought. And when the long war was ended, and 
peace had come to the land and the waves of human 
passion had stilled into calm, he was Washington, 
the Brother in Masonry, no less than Washington, 
the Patriot and Soldier. 

Sleeping under the shadow of a century, he is 
not dead, but walks a power through the land to 
inspire a higher patriotism, to call citizens to a 
truer life and the people in one hope, in one 
destiny, and in the moral grandeur which shall 
make our nation endure until nations shall blend 
in the kingdom of God which is immortal. 

He is not dead, whose glorious mind 

Lifts thine on high; 
To live in hearts we leave behind 

Is not to die. 



16 WASHHTGTON 

As Washington was to our fathers, so may he be 
to our children, and to our children's children, an 
inspiration to patriotism, loyalty, and nobility of 
character, to higher thoughts and aims, to a fervent 
renewal of our obligations, and the inculcation of 
the teachings and practice of the cardinal virtues 
and tenets of our profession as Masons. When the 
memory of that light shall fail, then, indeed, may 
we fear for the strength of our Institution, and 
that our liberties are indeed endangered. As was 
said of William the Silent, Washington "lived, the 
faithful ruler of a brave people, and when he died, 
the children cried in the streets." Nature kindly 
ordained that the name of Washington should not 
be sullied by descendants, "Heaven left him child- 
less that all the nation might call him father." 



WASHINGTON'S INITIATION, PASSING, AND 
RAISING 

ON Saturday evening, November 4th, 1752, in 
the little village of Fredericksburg, in Eng- 
land's ancient and loyal Colony and Dominion of 
Virginia, at a regular meeting of "the Lodge at 
Fredericksburg," held in its lodge-room, in the 
second story of the Market House, Major George 
Washington was made an Entered Apprentice 
Mason. We cannot tell who were the recommend- 
ers, or the committee of enquiry, but George 
Washington was the first person to be initiated in 
"the Lodge at Fredericksburg." 

The Market-House, long since torn down, which 
then stood on Main (or Caroline) street and the 
present Market Alley, was of brick, the under part 
being used as a market, the upper part being given 
up to rooms for the officials and to two larger 
rooms, one of which was rented by the Craft for 
a lodge-room, the other being used for balls and 
entertainments. 

In the ledger which is now bound with the min- 
ute-book, under the date of the following Monday, 

17 



18 WASHINGTOMf THE GREAT 

is the entry: "November 6, 1752, Received from 
Mr. George Washington for his entrance £2, 3s." 

In the minutes of "3rd March, 1753," the sole 
entry is "George Washington passed a Fellow 
Craft." 

The minutes of "4th August, 1753, Which Day 
the Lodge being Assembled present eight officers 
and members" (the names being given) read: "The 
transactions of the evening are George Washington 
raised a Master Mason. Thomas James Ent'd an 
Apprentice." 

Had the Lodge at Fredericksburg known how 
deep an interest would be felt by succeeding gen- 
erations in all that pertained to Washington, his 
Masonic record, even at that period, would prob- 
ably have been made with more fullness of detail. 
However, the lessons of history are progressive, and 
none could have known, as he passed through the 
mystic rites of Masonry in 1752, in the presence of 
that chosen band of brethren in Fredericksburg 
Lodge, that the new-made brother then before them 
would win in after-years a nation's honor, grati- 
tude, and love, and that after a century had passed 
the anniversary of his initiation would be cele- 
brated as a national Masonic jubilee. 

It will be noticed that Washington was made an 
Entered Apprentice Mason more than three months 



AMERICAN MASON 19 

before he was twenty-one years of age, but there 
was nothing irregular in this. The requirements 
in the Old Charges (as printed in the Constitution 
of 1723) are that the candidate shall be "of mature 
aga," and most of us would be inclined to think 
that the tall, athletic Adjutant-General, six feet two 
inches in height, "straight as an Indian," and, if 
tradition be true, the only man who ever threw a 
silver dollar across the Rappahannock at Freder- 
icksburg, was of "mature age" in 1752. 

It must be remembered, however, that the age 
which was regarded as "mature" has varied in dif- 
ferent countries at different times. 

In England, for some years prior to 1717, this 
age was "one and twenty." From the organization 
in 1717 of the Premier Grand Lodge, afterwards 
designated as "Modem," until 1767 the age was 
twenty-five; while under the "Ancient" Grand 
Lodge from its organization in 1751 the age was 
twenty-five until the union in 1813, when the Grand 
Lodge of "Moderns" was absorbed by the vastly 
greater body of the "Ancients." At this time, as 
has been well said by an eminent Irish Masonic 
scholar, Brother W. J. Chetwode Crawley, LL.D., 
"almost the only concession made by the 'Ancients' 
was the adoption of twenty-one years in place of 
twenty-five; and this concession, trivial as it was, 



20 WASHINGT^I. THE GREAT 

it is suspected would not have been made, had not 
the age limit of twenty-five years been found in 
practice inconveniently high." 

In Scotland from ancient times down to 1891, the 
age of entering was eighteen, and when, in 1891, 
the age was raised to twenty-one, the ancient rule 
was retained for the sons of Freemasons. The old- 
est Lodge in Scotland, and in the world for that 
matter, the Lodge of Edinburgh, Scotland, made a 
rule in January 30, 1683, at a time indeed when the 
"Operatives" predominated, that no one under the 
age of twenty-one should be advanced to be a 
Fellowcraft or Master Mason. There was a law 
in Louisiana before the present Grand Lodge was 
established, and at a time when the French influ- 
ence prevailed (it is well known that in the 
eighteenth century French and Scottish Masonry 
were closely connected), that the son of a Free- 
mason might be entered at the age of eighteen. 

It is quite probable that "the Lodge at Freder- 
icksburg" was originally constituted under Scottish 
regulations, as many of the Fredericksburg breth- 
ren were of Scotch extraction, and as in 1758, 
Daniel Campbell, Master of the Lodge at the time 
of Washington's initiation, obtained "an ample 
charter" from the Grand Lodge at Edinburgh. 
Further evidence that the Scottish regulations as to 



AMERICAN MASON 21 

age were enforced in the early years of "the Lodge 
at Fredericksburg," is shown by the fact that it was 
not until November 25, 1769, that the Lodge fixed 
twenty-one as the required age for initiation. 

It should be noted that although Washington was 
entered in November, he was not crafted until 
March 3d, the first meeting after he was twenty- 
one. The Scottish regulation would fully explain 
the delay in Washington's advancement, and dis- 
pose of the suggestion that the delay was caused by 
a "lack of money," a suggestion utterly lacking in 
probability when Washington's finances, as shown 
by his ledger now in the Department of State, are 
considered. A few days after he was initiated he 
received £55 from the sale of some "lotts." 

The delay in taking the second and third degrees 
is likewise easily understood when Washington's 
place of residence, forty-five miles away, and his 
military and professional engagements are consid- 
ered. 

However, whether of Scottish constitution or not, 
that it was in accord with the regulations in this 
country, at least in Pennsylvania, that a man might 
be initiated before he was twenty-one, is shown con- 
clusively by two footnotes in Ahiman Rezon first 
issued by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, in 
1783 one note providing that "no person be made 



22 WASHINGTON 

in the future under the age of twenty-one," and 
repealing the other note, which stated that twenty- 
one "was a proper rule for general observation, 
before a person can be advanced to the sublime de- 
gree of a Master Mason." 

Just when twenty-one became the "mature age" 
in Pennsylvania we cannot say. In Franklin's re- 
print of the Constitution of 1723, published in 
1724 in Philadelphia, (the first Masonic book pub- 
lished in America), no change from twenty-five to 
twenty-one appears; and it is an interesting fact 
that Franklin himself had just passed his twenty- 
fifth birthday, in the month before he was entered 
in St. John's Lodge in Philadelphia. 

So late as March 6, 1822, it seemed to the Grand 
Lodge of New York necessary, and it accordingly 
was 

"Ordered, That that part of the Book of Constitutions 
which relates to the qualifications of candidates for init- 
iation into the mysteries of Masonry, shall be so con- 
strued, as that no person shall be entered in any Lodge 
under this jurisdiction who shall not have attained the 
age of twenty-one years." 

It is, therefore, clear that there was no irregular- 
ity whatsoever in Washington's initiation before he 
was twenty-one years old. 



THE MASONIC CAREER OF WASHINGTON 

THE introduction of Freemasonry to America 
and the birth of George Washington (Febru- 
ary 22, 1732) were nearly contemporaneous. 

On June 5, 1730, Brother Daniel Coxe was ap- 
pointed, by deputation from the Duke of Norfolk, 
Grand Master of England, the first Provincial 
Grand Master of New York, New Jersey and Penn- 
sylvania; and the year following, the earliest 
known Lodge in America — that meeting at the 
"Tun" or "Sun" Tavern in Water Street, Philadel- 
phia — received its warrant or charter of constitu- 
tion. The Master of this Lodge, in 1734, was Ben- 
jamin Franklin. Thus the "City of Brotherly- 
Love," where Washington afterward presided as 
President and performed some of the most notable 
acts of his Masonic life, was the home of the first 
lodge, of which we have authentic record. 

FIRST MISSION AFTER HE WAS MADE A MASON 

Soon after Washington was made a Master 

Mason, he was employed in important public duties 

by the governor of Virginia. Political considera- 

23 



24 WASHINGTO*, THE GREAT 

tions required that a messenger be sent to the 
French military posts on the Ohio, to demand that 
the French depart and cease to intrude on claimed 
English domain. It was late in the autumn, and 
the difficulties of the season, and the hazardous 
undertaking of encountering not only the French, 
but hostile Indians, were sufficient to try the forti- 
tude of the boldest adventurer. Washington's 
reply, when solicitated by the Governor to under- 
take the commission, was: "For my own part, I 
can answer that I have a constitution hardy enough 
to encounter and undergo the most severe toils, and, 
I flatter myself, resolution to face what any man 
dares." Nobly spoken! And yet it was but the 
reflection of a Masonic lesson he had learned on 
his admission to Masonry but one year before. 
What lesson learned in Masonry was ever by him 
forgotten or unheeded? 

Tradition, which no Masonic records of that 
period now existing either verify or contradict, 
states that Washington and his Masonic brethren 
held military Lodges during the old French War; 
and there is a cave near Charlestown in West Vir- 
ginia, a few miles from Winchester, where his 
headquarters for two years were located, which to 
this day is called Washington s Masonic Cave. It 
is divided into several apartments, one of which is 



AMERICAN MASON 25 

called The Lodge Room. Tradition says that 
Washington and his Masonic brethren held Lodges 
in this cavern. In the spring of 1844 the Masons 
of that vicinity held a celebration there to com- 
memorate the event. 

For nearly twenty-five years the incidents of 
Washington's early Masonic life are lost in obscu- 
rity. Iliere is a tradition that he may have at- 
tended the "Lodge of Social and Military Virtues," 
No. 227, on the Register of the Grand Lodge of 
Ireland, during a visit to Philadelphia, New York 
and Boston in the winter of 1756, and doubtless he 
attended other Lodges, but the brethren of that 
early period were often remiss in the preservation 
of their records and the facts are not known. 

Virginia's noblest sons were Masons, but the 
lapse of time and the devastation of war have left 
few memorials of their mystic labors. Colonial 
New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Carolina 
and Georgia had at this period each their Provin- 
cial Grand Easts, whose master-workmen history 
has made her own; and when along the pathway of 
Masonry in colonial Virginia we see her noblest 
sons with hand grips strong and true greeting breth- 
ren from the North, the East, and the South, at the 
commencement of the Revolution, we deeply de- 
plore the loss of records relating to this period. 



26 WASHINGTC^, THE GREAT 

"Brave old Virginia — proud you well may be, 
When you retrace that glorious dynasty 
Of intellectual giants, who were known 
As much the nation's children as your own — 
Your brilliant jewels, aye, you gave them all, 
Like Sparta's mother, at your country's call! 
The Senate knew their eloquence and power, 
And the red battle in its wildest hour. 
No matter whence — to glory or the grave — 
They shone conspicuous, bravest of the brave. 
One o'er the bravest and the best bore sway — 
Bright is his memory in our hearts to-day! 
His bosom burned with patriotic fire — 
Virginia's son became his country's sire; 
And in those lofty claims we proudly vie, 
He was our brother of the Mystic tie^^ 

LODGES IN THE ARMY 

Washington reached Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
on the 2nd of July, 1775, and on the next day 
took command of the army. There were gathered 
around him a band of men determined to defend 
their liberties. But the year closed dark and 
gloomy for the prospects of the army. Mrs. Wash- 
ington left Mount Vernon late in the fall to spend 
the winter months at headquarters, and some of the 
officers were also joined by their wives, but the 
other officers and soldiers had few pleasures in their 



AMERICAN MASON 27 

winter-quarters to make them forget the homes 
they had left. 

During the French and Indian War, military 
Lodge warrants had been granted by the Grand 
Lodge of Massachusetts to the brethren in the army; 
and at the close of their wearisome marches, and 
in their cheerless camps, the Masonic Lodge-room 
became a bivouac in the tired soldier's life, where 
his toils and privations were forgotten, and the 
finest feelings of his heart were cultivated. While 
the Connecticut line of the army were encamped 
during this winter at Roxbury, near Boston, a move- 
ment was made by the brethren in it, early in Febru- 
ary, to establish a Masonic Lodge in their camp. 
For this purpose they applied to the Grand Lodge 
of Massachusetts, of which John Rowe was Grand 
Master, and Colonel Richard Gridley his Deputy, 
for the necessary authority. This petition was 
granted. 

This Lodge was called the American Union 
Lodge, and was one of the most famous army 
Lodges during the American Revolution. Both its 
name and the device on its seal were significant of 
the aid lent by Masonry in the hour of our country's 
need. Both were expressive of the great sentiment 
which then pervaded the American heart. If lib- 
erty was its keynote, union was its watchword. The 



28 WASHINGTON THE GREAT 

union of the Anglo-American colonies for mutual 
defense had been proposed in 1741, by Daniel Coxe 
of New Jersey, the first Provincial Grand Master 
of America. It had again been advocated in 1754 
by Dr. Franklin, Provincial Grand Master of Penn- 
sylvania, who also symbolized the idea at the close 
of an essay, which he published on this subject, by 
a wood-cut representing a snake divided into parts, 
with the initial letter of each colony on a separate 
part, underneath which he placed the motto, "join 

OR DIE." 

The purposes for which both Coxe and Franklin 
had unsuccessfully advocated a federal union of 
the colonies, had been to protect them against the 
French. When the Revolution commenced, and 
the union of the colonies against British aggression 
was urged, many of the newspapers adopted Frank- 
lin's device and motto. When the union had been 
accomplished, the device was changed and a coiled 
rattlesnake with its head erect to strike was substi- 
tuted, with the motto, "don't tread on me." 
Both these devices and mottoes were inscribed on 
flags and other ensigns of war for the provincial 
troops at the commencement of the Revolution. 
This device, as a colonial emblem, was soon after 
changed to a circle consisting of a chain with thir- 
teen links, containing in each an initial letter of 



AMERICAN MASON 



29 




Seal of American Union Lodge 



one of the thirteen colonies. It was also placed 
upon some of the currency of the colonies as early 

as 1776. 

The seal of the 
American Union Lodge 
bore the same popular 
American idea in its 
symbolism, having as 
its principal device a 
chain of thirteen cir- 
cular links, around a 
central part, on which 
was the square and compasses, with the sun, moon, 
and a star above, and three burning tapers beneath 
them, the extremities of the chain being united by 
two clasped hands. For the leading idea of the 
symbolism of the chain representing the union of 
the colonies, the brethren were probably indebted 
to Dr. Franklin, who visited the American camp 
in 1776, as one of the committee from Congress to 
confer with Washington on the affairs of the war. 
The seal is supposed to have been engraved by 
Paul Revere, the distinguished Mason and patriot 
of Massachusetts, who was often employed at that 
period to engrave such designs. 

The number of military Lodges rose to ten dur- 
ing the Revolution, one warranted by New York, 



30 WASHINGTQftt, THE GREAT 

two by Massachusetts and seven by Pennsylvania, 
and the tradition is well established that during 
the most trying periods of the Revolution, notably 
at Valley Forge and at Newburgh, Washington 
found time to foregather in Lodge on the level with 
his Masonic brethren. 

FREEMASONRY IN THE REVOLUTION 

When Washington arrived at Cambridge to 
take over the command of the Continental forces, 
July 2, 1775, he was known as a slave owner, an 
aristocrat, and a Churchman. He had been passed 
over native generals to the supreme command 
among a people, democratic, simple, hardworking 
and dissenters to the backbone, who regarded Epis- 
copacy as little short of Papistry. An amusing in- 
stance of the intensely democratic character of the 
Army is the case of a Captain of horse who was 
once observed shaving a private on the parade 
ground! The effect of Freemasonry upon the 
democratic sentiments of Washington himself, and 
upon the attitude of the Army in loyally accepting 
his appointment as Commander-in-Chief, affords 
grounds for the most interesting speculations. 
The known facts are that a number of the most 
popular and influential officers of the army, in- 
cluding several New England generals, were Ma- 



AMERICAN MASON 31 

sons with whom the Commander-in-Chief was in fra- 
ternal intercourse, and that Washington is reputed 
to have sat in a Lodge at Cambridge of which an 
Orderly-Sergeant was Master. 

Throughout the Revolution the influence of 
Freemasonry was a decisive one both in the halls 
of Congress and upon the battlefield. The mere 
recital of the names of statesmen and warriors of 
revolutionary fame who were members of the Craft, 
coupled with the known facts concerning Washing- 
ton's Masonic activities, will suggest to the student 
of American history how much the confidence and 
support of his Masonic brethren must have sus- 
tained the Commander-in-Chief during the darkest 
hours of the Revolution. 

Among Masonic statesmen occur the names of 
James Otis, Paul Revere, Peyton Randolph, John 
Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, 
Robert Livingston, John Jay, Robert Morris and 
many others. 

Among Washington's generals who were Masons 
were Nathaniel Greene, Ethan Allen, William 
Moultrie, "Mad Anthony" Wayne, "Lighthorse" 
Harry Lee, John Stark, Israel Putnam, Francis 
Marion, John Sullivan, Baron Steuben, Lafayette 
and many more. 



32 WASHINGTON THE GREAT 

THE DARKEST PERIOD IN AMERICAN MASONRY 

The close of 1776 was the darkest period in the 
history of American Masonry. Every Grand East 
on the American continent was shrouded in dark- 
ness. Massachusetts, Virginia and North Carolina 
had each lost a Grand Master since the commence- 
ment of the war; the old Grand Lodge of New 
York was dissolved by its Grand Master, Sir John 
Johnson, fleeing from his home, and becoming an 
officer in the British army. The labors of the 
Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania were suspended, 
and their hall was soon afterwards made a prison- 
room for citizens who were disaffected to the 
American cause. 

In the spring of 1777 a ray of light arose in the 
East. The members remaining of Dr. Warren's 
Grand Lodge were convened, and they resolved, 
that as the political head of this country had 
destroyed all connection between the States and the 
country from which the Grand Lodge derived its 
commissioned authority, Great Britain, it was their 
privilege to assume elective supremacy, and they 
accordingly elected Joseph Webb their Grand Mas- 
ter. 




en 



V 
bjD 

!h 
O 
<V 
O 






of '"d 



T3 
03 



AMERICAN MASON 33 

WASHINGTON PROPOSED AS GRAND MASTER OF 
VIRGINIA 

Virginia, too, in May of the same year, called a 
convention of its Lodges, and this body recom- 
mended George Washington to its constituents as 
the most proper person to be elected the first inde- 
pendent Grand Master of Virginia. Washington 
at that time had no official position in Masonry, and 
he modestly declined the intended honor, when in- 
formed of the wish of his Virginia brethren, for 
two reasons: first, he did not consider it Masonic- 
ally legal that one who had never been installed as 
Master or Warden of a Lodge should be elected 
Grand Master; second, his country claimed at the 
time all his services in the tented field. John 
Blair, the Master of Williamsburg Lodge, who was 
an eminent citizen of Virginia, was therefore elect- 
ed in his stead. The present jewel of the Grand 
Master of Virginia was made for Washington, and 
has been worn ever since by the Grand Masters of 
Virginia. 

THE FIRST DEDICATION TO WASHINGTON 

The British troops evacuated Philadelphia and 
the campaign of 1778 closed with the contending 
armies in nearly the same position as they were in 
the summer of 1776. In the latter part of Decern- 



34 WASHINGT^, THE GREAT 

ber, Washington visited Philadelphia, where Con- 
gress was in session; and while there the Grand 
Lodge of Pennsylvania celebrated the festival of 
St. John the Evangelist. Washington was present 
on the occasion, and was honored with the chief 
place in the procession, being supported on his 
right by the Grand Master, and on his left by the 
Deputy Grand Master. More than three hundred 
brethren joined in the procession. They met at 
nine o'clock, at the college, and being properly 
clothed, the officers in the jewels of their office and 
other badges of their dignity, the procession moved 
at eleven o'clock and proceeded to Christ Church 
where a Masonic sermon for the benefit of the poor 
was preached by the Rev. Brother William Smith, 
D.D., Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Penn- 
sylvania. In it he beautifully alluded to Washing- 
ton, who was present, as the Cincinnatus of Amer- 
ica; saying also, "Such, too, if we divine aright, 
will future ages pronounce the character of a . . . ; 
but you will anticipate me in a name, which deli- 
cacy forbids me on this occasion to mention. Hon- 
ored with his presence as a brother, you will seek 
to derive virtue from his example." 

This sermon by Dr. Smith was published soon 
after by direction of the Grand Lodge and the 
profits arising from its sale were given to the poor. 



AMERICAN MASON 35 

More than four hundred pounds were collected for 
the relief of the poor, and the Grand Lodge of Penn- 
sylvania was made on this occasion the almoner of 
Washington's bounty. 

An ode commemorative of Washington's partic- 
ipation in the ceremonies, and the position he occu- 
pied, was written a few months afterwards by 
Colonel John Park, a distinguished member of 
American Union Lodge, addressed to Colonel Proc- 
tor, of Pennsylvania, bearing date, February 7, 
1779, in which he says: 

See Washington, he leads the train, 
'Tis he commands the grateful strain; 
See, every crafted son obeys, 
And to the godlike brother homage pays. 

Let fame resound him through the land, 
And echo, 'Tis our Master Grand! 

'Tis he our ancient craft shall sway, 
Whilst we, with three times three, obey. 



THE ATTEMPT TO ELECT WASHINGTON 

GRAND MASTER OF THE 

UNITED STATES 

AT the close of 1779, Washington's headquar- 
ters were again at Morristown, New Jersey, 
where they had been during the winter of 1776-77. 
Here the American Union Lodge was again at work, 
and also other military Lodges, which had been 
organized in the American army. 

At a meeting of this Lodge, held on the 15th of 
December, its records show that its Master, Major 
Jonathan Hart, was appointed one of a joint com- 
mittee from the various military Lodges in the 
army "to take into consideration some matters for 
the good of Masonry." At the festival on the 27th, 
"a petition was read, representing the present state 
of Freemasonry to the several Deputy Grand Mas- 
ters in the United States of America, desiring them 
to adopt some measures for appointing a Grand 
Master over said States." 

The events we are now sketching are of great im- 
terest, not only to the Masonic history of Washing- 
ton, but also of the Masonic history of our country. 

36 



WASHINGTON 37 

An emergent meeting of the Grand Lodge of Penn- 
sylvania convened at Philadelphia, on the 13th of 
January, 1780, to consider the propriety of ap- 
pointing a Grand Master over all the Grand Lodges 
formed or to be formed in the United States, and 
its records show that: 

"The ballot was put upon the question whether it be 
for the benefit of Masonry, that a Grand Master of Ma- 
sons throughout the United States shall now be nominated 
on the part of this Grand Lodge; and it was unanimously 
determined in the affirmative. . . . His Excellency, 
George Washington, Esq., General and Commander-in- 
chief of the Army of the United States, being first in 
nomination, he was balloted for as Grand Master, and 
elected by the unanimous vote of the whole lodge." 

The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts having sub- 
mitted the consideration of the matter to her sub- 
ordinates, one of her subordinate Lodges at Ma- 
chias, Maine, passed resolutions favorable to the 
movement. The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, 
however, having more fully considered the subject, 
thought the election of a General Grand Master of 
the United States premature and inexpedient. 

This correspondence with the Grand Lodge of 
Massachusetts was the last effort made by the Grand 
Lodge of Pennsylvania to establish a General Amer- 
ican head over all the Lodges in this country; and 
in later times, when the project was advocated by 



38 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

other grand bodies, her voice was invariably against 
it. 

From the action of the Grand Lodge of Penn- 
sylvania in 1780 undoubtedly arose the wide- 
spread appellation of the title of General Grand 
Master for Washington, an historical error. There 
is no doubt that in the minds of all his Masonic 




Washington Masonic Medal, 1797. 

compeers after the independence of the country 
was attained, he was justly regarded as the great 

PATRON OF THE FRATERNITY IN AMERICA, and this 

veneration led many to believe at the time of his 
death, and long after, that he had held official rank 

as GENERAL GRAND MASTER. 

This illusion was also perpetuated by a Masonic 
medal, struck in 1797, having on one side 
the bust of Washington in military dress, and the 
legend, "g. Washington, president, 1797." On 



AMERICAN MASON 39 

the other side were the emblems of Masonry, sur- 
rounded by the inscription, Amor, Honor, Et Jus- 
ticia, and the initials, "G. W., G. G. M." 

Although the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania did 



Arms of the Freemasons, 

not succeed in creating a General Grand Mastership 
and elevating Washington to that office, as was its 
desire, and also that of the military Lodges of the 
Army, from whom the proposition first sprang, 
yet that grand body still continued to regard him as 
first among American Masons. 



40 WASHIJ^GTON 

THE NEWBURGH ADDRESS 

A Striking instance of the influence of Washing- 
ton as a man and a Mason occurred at Newburgh 
where the army was quartered in the interval be- 
tween the capture of Yorktown and the evacuation 
by the British of New York. A rumor had gained 
credence that Congress intended to disband the 
army without pay. The spirit of mutiny was rife 
and an anonymous circular was issued calling a 
meeting of officers to consider their refusal to lay 
down their arms. By previous arrangement with 
loyal officers, Washington caused to be elected as 
chairman, Gates, one of the ringleaders of this 
meeting, thus keeping him off" the floor. The meet- 
ing was called in a log building which had been 
erected as a Masonic Temple and in which Wash- 
ington had sat in Lodge with many of the officers 
present. He attended the meeting in person and 
delivered an address advising prudence and mod- 
eration and, by his counsels, in the opinion of his- 
torians, quelled an incipient rebellion, which, had 
it broken out, might have had the gravest conse- 
quences. 

On September 22, 1782, as shown by the original 
records, now in possession of the Grand Lodge of 
New York, Washington was a visitor at Solomon's 
Lodge No. 1, at Poughkeepsie. 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION 

THE close of the Revolution, and the time for 
the disbanding of the army having drawn 
near and no definite action having been taken by 
the Masonic fraternity either in the army or in the 
country at large, to constitute Washington as the 
head of all Masons, the affectionate regard of the 
officers for their commander and for each other led 
them to form an association among themselves, 
having the social features of the Masonic institu- 
tion as its leading principle. 

THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI 

The idea of the Society of the Cincinnati is said 
to have originated with General Knox who com- 
municated his plan to Baron Steuben. It was de- 
signed by inculcating benevolence and mutual relief 
to perpetuate the friendships of the officers of the 
army, and their descendants, and to incite in their 
minds the most exalted patriotism. At a general 
meeting of the officers on the 13th of May, 1783, 

with the approbation of Washington, they instituted 

41 



42 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

the "Society of the Cincmnati," and he became its 
first president and continued to hold the office until 
his death. 

On June 24, 1784, at a banquet held at Wise's 
Tavern, then the meeting place of Alexandria Lodge 
No. 39, Pennsylvania register, he accepted honor- 
ary membership in that Lodge, thereby becoming 
a Pennsylvania Mason. 

In August, 1784, Lafayette visited Washington 
at Mount Vernon and there presented to him a Ma- 
sonic apron of white satin, embroidered in colored 
silks with various Masonic emblems by Mme. La- 
fayette. This apron is now preserved in the mu- 
seum of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. 

From 1783-84 as shown by the minutes of 
Alexandria Lodge No. 39, Washington attended 
numerous meetings. 

In 1785, the Grand Lodge of New York formed 
for itself a new Book of Constitutions which was 
dedicated to Washington as follows: 

"To His Excellency George Washington, Esq.: 
"In testimony, as well of his exalted services to his 
country, as of his distinguished character as a Mason, 
the following Book of Constitutions of the ancient and 
honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, by 
order, and in behalf of the Grand Lodge of the State of 
New York, is dedicated." 



AMERICAN MASON 43 

WASHINGTON MASTER OF ALEXANDRIA LODGE NO. 22 

The records of Alexandria Lodge No. 22, under 
the date of November 22, 1788, contain the copy 
of the following letter: 

"The brethren of Lodge No. 39, Ancient York Masons, 
were congregated, and have hitherto wrought under a 
warrant from the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, who 
having since the Revolution declared themselves inde- 
pendent of any foreign jurisdiction, and also notified us 
that it was necessary that we should renew our warrant 
under the new established Grand Lodge; the brethren 
comprising this Lodge, taking the same under considera- 
tion, and having found it convenient to attend the dif- 
ferent communications of that honorable 'society in 
Philadelphia, and as a Grand Lodge is established in our 
own State in Richmond agreeable to the ancient land- 
marks, whose communications we can with more ease and 
convenience attend, have at sundry preceding meetings 
resolved to ask your honorable society for a new warrant, 
which has already been communicated to you by letter, 
and also by our Brother Hunter personally . . . and 
pray that it be granted to us. 

"It is also the earnest desire of the members of this 
Lodge that our Brother George Washington, Esq., should 
be named in the charter as Master of the Lodge. 

The Grand Lodge of Virginia, in accordance with this 
request, granted a new warrant to the Lodge at Alexan- 
dria, constituting Brother George Washington its first 
Master under its new warrant; and its registry number 



44 WASHINGTON 

was changed from No. 39 ^Pennsylvania, to No. 22 of 
Virginia. 

In March, 1789, Washington was made an Hon- 
orary Member of Holland Lodge, New York. 

On August 17, 1790, he was presented with an 
address by King David's Lodge, Newport, Rhode 
Island. 

In 1791, the Grand Lodge of Virginia Book of 
Constitutions was dedicated to Washington. 

On January 21, 1792, he was presented with an 
address by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, at 
Philadelphia. 

On November 8, 1798, when he had been called 
from retirement to accept command, with the rank 
of Lieutenant-General, of a Provisional army or- 
dered by Congress to be raised by reason of the 
danger of war with France, he was presented with 
an address by the Grand Lodge of Maryland. 



INAUGURATED AS PRESIDENT 

THE State of New York has the honor of 
conferring upon Washington one of the most 
distinguished Masonic honors he received. It fur- 
nished the Bible and the Grand Master who admin- 
istered to him the oath of office as President of 
the United States. 

Washington left his home on the 16th of April, 
1789, for the inauguration at New York City. At 
Alexandria, at Georgetown, at Baltimore, at Phil- 
adelphia, at Trenton, and at Elizabethtown he was 
greeted by crowds of his fellow citizens, who pub- 
licly honored him by festivities, civic decorations, 
and laudatory addresses. Washington wished to 
avoid all ostentatious display, but the great heart of 
America was full of love for him, and blessings 
were showered upon his head and flowers strewn 
along his pathway. 

These various public demonstrations are record- 
ed on the pages of our country's history, and need 
not be repeated here. It was as if he was passing 
through the spring fields of a country where tender 

45 



46 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

plants, whose buds had been crushed by war, were 
now putting forth blossoms to hide the blood 
stains left during the War of the Revolution. 

Washington reached New York on the 23d of 
April, and the 30th of the same month was the day 
fixed for his inauguration. On that occasion Gen- 




The Bible on which Washington Took the Oath of Office, 
as President. 

eral Jacob Morton was marshal of the day. He 
was the Master of St. John's, the oldest Lodge in 
the city, and at the same time the Grand Secretary 
of the Grand Lodge of New York. General Morton 
brought from the altar of his Lodge the Bible with 
its cushion of crimson velvet, and upon that sacred 
volume, Robert R. Livingston, Chancellor of the 
State of New York and Grand Master of its Grand 



AMERICAN MASON 47 

Lodge, administered to Washington his oath of 
office as President of the United States. 

Having taken the oath, Washington reverently- 
bowed and kissed the sacred volume. The awful 
suspense of the moment was broken by Chancellor 
Livingston who solemnly said: ^'Long live George 
Washington, President of the United States! A 
thousand voices at once joined in repeated acclima- 
tions, LONG LIVE George Washington!" 

A memorial leaf of this Bible was then 
folded at the page on which Washington had de- 
voutly impressed his lips; and the volume was re- 
turned to St. John's Lodge and placed upon its 
altar. A few years later it was again taken 
from its resting place, and borne in solemn proces- 
sion by the Masonic brethren of New York City, 
who met to pay funeral honors to the memory of 
Washington. It is still in possession of St. John's 
Lodge No. 1, and valued highly as a sacred 
memento. The last time this Bible on which 
Washington took the oath of office as the first 
President of the United States on April 30, 1789, 
on the steps of the Federal Building in Wall Street, 
New York City, played an important part in the 
official life of the nation was when Brother Hard- 
ing requested that he be granted the privilege of 
taking the oath of office as President of the United 



48 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

States on this same Bibre^ The request of Brother 
Harding was granted, and Grand Master Robinson 
of the Grand Lodge of New York accompanied 
the Committee of St. John's Lodge, consisting of 
the Master, Brother Frederick A. Onderdonk and 
Past Masters Brothers George T. Montgomery, 
George H. Phillips, John J. Morrow and Charles H. 
Hamilton, who were appointed to escort and guard 
the Bible and witnessed from a prominent place 
on the inaugural stand the consummation of 
Brother Harding's desire. 

On this famous Bible, that priceless treasure of 
St. John's Lodge, Brother Harding promised and 
swore to defend the Constitution and fulfill the 
great office of President, pressing his lips on that 
verse in the prophecy of Micah which asks "What 
doth God require of thee but to do justice, to love 
mercy and to walk humbly before thy God?" to 
which he referred at the close of his powerful, 
address with these inspiring words of dedication 
and consecration: 

THIS I PLIGHT TO GOD AND COUNTRY 

Shall we not rejoice in the knowledge that the 
Masonic spirit of Brother George Washington still 
lives in the heart and dominates the will and pur- 
pose of the Brother Mason whom his fellow- 




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AMERICAN MASON 49 

countrymen have elevated to the highest office in 
the land? 

The memory of Washington's oath of office 
taken upon this Bible, is perpetuated by the fol- 
lowing inscription, beautifully engrossed and ac- 
companied by a miniature of Washington from an 
engraving by Leney, prepared by order of the 
Lodge. The closing poetic lines were written by 
the Rev. Dr. Haven, of Portsmouth, New Hamp- 
shire, on Washington's visit to that town in 1789, 
in answer to an enquiry by what title he should 
be addressed. The committee appointed by the 
Lodge to form this memorial were sworn on the 
same volume to faithfully perform their duties. 

Washington's last visit to his mother 
Before Washington left Mount Vernon for the 
inaugural ceremonies he visited his mother at Fred' 
ericksburg for the last time. Again he had come 
to her to say that his country demanded his services, 
but that when the public interest permitted he would 
return. She interrupted him by saying: "You 
will see my face no more. My great age, and 
the disease that is approaching my vitals, warns 
me that I shall not be long for this world. But 
go, George, fulfill the high duties which heaven 
appears to assign you; go, my son, and may 



50 



WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 



ON 

SACRED 




THIS 
VOLUME 



On the 30th day of April, A. M, 5789, in the City 

of New York, 

Was administered to 

George Washington 

The first President of the United States of America 

THE OATH 

To support the Constitution of the United States. 

This important ceremony was performed by the 

Most Worshipful 

GRAND MASTER 

Of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of 

New York 

Robert R. Livingston 

Chancellor of the State, 

Fame spread her wings, and loud her trumpet blew: 
Great Washington is near! What praise his due? 
What title shall he have? She paused — and said, 
Not one; his name alone strikes every title dead! 




Washington's Farewell to His Mother 



AMERICAN MASON 51 

heaven's and your mother's blessing always at- 
tend you." 

Washington had learned during his eventful life 
to meet with composure the dangers of the battle- 
field, the frowns of adversity, and the smiles of 
fortune, but the tenderness of his mother's words 
and the maternal look and tone with which the 
words were spoken overcame every restraint he had 
placed upon his feelings, and he leaned his head 
upon her shoulder as if he were again a boy, and 
the furrows in his cheeks were wet with imwonted 
tears. 

The words of his mother were indeed prophetic 
for she died the following autumn, and was buried 
in a spot she herself had chosen. It was near a 
romantic ledge of rocks, where she had often re- 
sorted to pray, and the sylvan bethel where a 
mother's prayers were offered for Washington, is 
now hallowed by that mother's grave. What spot 
on American soil is more sacred! 

LAYING THE CORNER-STONE OF THE CAPITOL 

The corner-stone of the Capitol of the United 
States of America, in the City of Washington, was 
laid on the 18th day of September, 1793, in the 
Masonic Year 5793, in the thirteenth year of Amer- 
ican Independence, in the first year of the second 



52 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

term of the presidenc^of George Washington, 
whose virtues in the civil administration of his 
country guided it through the storms of the earliest 
years of our national life, and whose military valor 
and prudence established its independence. The 
comer-stone was laid by the President of the 
United States, in concert with the Grand Lodge of 
Maryland, several Lodges under its jurisdiction, 
and Lodge No. 22, from Alexandria, Virginia. 

Washington, although holding at this time no offi- 
cial rank in Masonry, except that of Past Master 
of Lodge No. 22, at Alexandria, clothed himself for 
the occasion with an apron and other insignia of a 
Mason, and was honored with the chief place in 
the procession and ceremonies. The gavel which 
he used on that occasion was ivory, and is now in 
possession of Lodge No. 9, at Georgetown, which 
was represented by its officers and members in the 
procession. No act of Washington was more his- 
toric than this, and yet it finds no place on the pages 
of our country's history. It was he who was first 
in the hearts of all men, honoring Masonry by his 
profession as a brother, and sanctioning by his 
participation as the chief actor in its highest public 
ceremonies, its claim as an institution worthy of 
national confidence and regard. And yet the com- 
pilers of our country's annals have ignored the fact 



AMERICAN MASON 53 

or left it unrecorded on their pages, until their si- 
lence has been made to testify that Washington dis- 
dained publicly to avow himself a Mason. But he 
stood on that occasion before his brethren and the 
world as the representative of Solomon of old who 
the Jewish historian says, "laid the foundation of 
the Temple very deep in the ground ; and the mate- 
rials were strong stones, such as would resist the 
force of time." 



THE DEATH OF WASHINGTON 

Departed this life on the Uth of December 1799, 
Aet. 68 

"Ere mature manhood marked his youthful brow, 
He sought our altar and he made his vow — 
Upon our tesselated floor he trod, 
Bended his knees, and placed his trust in God ! 
Through all his great and glorious life he stood 
A true, warm brother, foremost e'er in good ; 
And when he died, amid a nation's gloom. 
His mourning brethren bore him to the tomb!" 

THE sun had passed its meridian before the 
Fraternity and military escort arrived from 
Alexandria. The Masonic apron and two crossed 
swords were then placed upon the coffin, a few 
mystic words were spoken, and the brethren filed by 
the noble form, majestic even in death, and took a 
sad last look at one they had loved so well. Alas, 
the light of his eye and the breathing of his lips 
in fraternal greeting were lost to them forever on 
this side of the grave! 

Down the shaded avenues that led from the man- 
sion to the Potomac was seen a vessel at anchor 

54 



WASHINGTON 55 

with its white sails furled, awaiting the procession's 
forming. The cavalry took its position in the van, 
and next came the infantry and guard, all with arms 
reversed. Behind them followed a small band of 
music with muffled drums and next the clergy, two 
and two. They were four in number — Rev. Dr. 
Muir and the Rev. Messrs. Davis, Maffitt, and Addi- 
son — the first three of whom were Masons and 
members of Lodge No. 22, at Alexandria. Then 
followed Washington's war-horse, led by two 
grooms dressed in black. It was riderless that day, 
but carried saddle, holsters, and pistols. Next was 
placed the body on its bier, covered with a dark 
pall. Six Masonic brethren attended it as pall- 
bearers. They were Colonels Gilpin, Marsteller, 
and Little on the right, and Colonels Simms, Ram- 
sey, and Payne on the left, all members of Wash- 
ington's own Lodge. Each of them wore on his 
left arm an ample badge of black crepe, which may 
still be seen, together with the bier on which the 
body was borne, in the museum at Alexandria. 
The relatives and a few intimate family friends 
then followed as principal mourners. Then came 
the officers and members of the Lodge and other 
Masonic brethren, all as mourners. 

The officers of the corporation of Alexandria 
then took their places behind the Masonic Frater- 



56 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

nity; citizens followed, preceded by the overseers 
of the Mount Vernon estate, and the domestics of 
the estate closed the procession. 




Masonic Funeral Ceremonies at Mount Vernon 

The Rev. Mr. Davis closed the burial service 
with a short address. There was a pause — and 
then the Master of the Lodge performed the mystic 
funeral rites of Masonry, as the last service at the 



AMERICAN MASON 57 

burial of Washington. The apron and the sword 
were removed from the coffin, for their place was 
no longer there. It was ready for entombment. 
The brethren one by one cast upon it an evergreen 
sprig, and their hearts spoke the Mason's farewell 
as they bestowed their last mystic gift. There was 
breathless silence there during this scene. So still 
was all around in the gathered multitude of citizens, 
that they might almost have heard the echoes of the 
acacia as it fell with trembling lightness upon the 
coffin lid. The pall-bearers placed their precious 
burden in the tomb's cold embrace, earth was cast 
on the threshold and the words were spoken — 
'^ Earth to earth — ashes to ashes — dust to dusf — 
and the entombment of Washington was finished. 
The public burial honors of Masonry were 
given by each brother with uplifted hands, saying 
in his heart, "Alas! my brother! We have knelt with 
thee in prayer, we have pressed thee to our bosoms, 
we will meet thee in heaven!" The cannon on the 
vessel and on the banks above them then fired their 
burial salute, and Mount Vernon's tomb was left in 
possession of its noblest sleeper. 



58 WASHINGTON 



Through the lone shadows dim 

We follow him 
Whose face we no more see, 
Holding in deathless memory 
The love we found in him. 

He hears the rush of unseen wings, 
The hush of lonely silent things 
That softly float 

In dreamland's boat 
From sun-kissed shores of memory. 

Forgive the selfishness of men 

Who call thee friend, 
Yet wish thee back with us again! 
It mars the happiness of him 
Who now is with the Cherubim! 



PART II 

GREAT AMERICAN MASONS CONTEMPO- 
RARY WITH WASHINGTON 



REVOLUTIONARY MASONS 

IF Virginia produced a Masonic Washington 
Pennsylvania vies with her in claiming a 
Masonic Franklin, that name so intimately asso- 
ciated with Washington, whose staff in civil life 
was no less potent than the sword of Washington, 
in war. It was in the argument of James Otis, a 
brother Mason of the First Lodge, at Boston, 
against the Writs of Assistance, that greatly 
aided the independence and liberty of the Colo- 
nies. John Hancock, Joseph Warren, and Paul 
Revere were Masons, aU being later Grand Mas- 
ters of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. Paul 
Revere, known to every school boy, who rode 
through "Middlesex village and farm, for the coun- 
try folk to be up and arm," chose to assist him in 

hanging the "lanterns aloft in the belfry arch of 

59 



60 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

the North Church tow^ one if by land and two 
if by sea," John Pulling, a member of Marblehead 
Lodge, while Joseph Warren selected William 
Dawes, another Mason, to perform the same errand 
as Revere, across the country from Roxbury. John 
Hancock gave his fortune to the cause of the Colo- 
nies, and Joseph Warren, being at the time the 
Grand Master of Masons, gave his life in the 
battle of Bunker Hill, the fatal shot being fired 
across the breastworks laid out by Richard Grid- 
ley as civil engineer, who took part in the battle, 
and at the time was Deputy Grand Master of 
Masons. 

The First Lodge of "Ancient" Masons in Boston 
met at the Green Dragon tavern, "that nest where 
patriot plots were hatched." The disguise of 
Indians were assumed by the greater part of those 
who threw the hated tea into the tide, and the rec- 
ords of St. Andrew's Lodge at one place bear the 
laconic statement, "Consignees of Tea took the 
brethren's time." 

This tavern, also known as the "Freemasons 
Arms," was described by the royal Governor as a 
"nest of sedition" and by Daniel Webster as the 
"Headquarters of the Revolution," a name to 
which it has undoubted claim. 

It was a two-story brick building on a little lane 



AMERICAN MASON 61 

off Union Street, near the shores of the Mill Pond. 
It was purchased by St. Andrew's Lodge before 
the Revolution (1770) and the site is still owned 
by them. The building was taken down in 1828. 
Here met the North End Caucus, the Sons of 
Liberty, Paul Revere's famous Club and other 
Revolutionary bodies. "How much 'treason,' " 
says the historian Drake, "was hatched under this 
roof will never be known. But much was unques- 
tionably concocted within the walls of the Masonic 
Lodge." 

It was to men active in these and similar pa- 
triotic scenes that George Washington came to 
assume command of the Colonial army under the 
historic elm at Cambridge. It needed not the slow 
growth of confidence to enable Washington to know 
and try these men, for he found already those "to 
whom the burdened heart could pour out its sor- 
rows, to whom distress could prefer its suit," 
with whom friendships and confidences existed at 
once with the hand clasp, and with whom coopera- 
tion and action were immediate. 

The controversy and rivalry between the "An- 
cient" and "Modern" Grand Lodges in England 
had important consequences in the Colonies. In 
brief, the original Grand Lodge in England, im- 
properly called "Modern," had "a noble brother 



62 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

at their head" and w^ strongly inclined to be 
aristocratic, not to say snobbish. The "Ancient" 
Grand Lodge was formed by seceders with the 
avowed object of reviving the purer democracy of 
the old Lodges. They promptly admitted as mem- 
bers certain artisans and laborers in London who 
had been made Masons in Ireland but who, by 
reason of their lack of money and social position, 
had been excluded from the "Modem" Lodges. 

The same difference obtained in the Colonies. 
The "Modern" Lodges, generally speaking, were 
patronized by the royal Governors and other Brit- 
ish civil and military officers and for the most part 
sympathized with the Crown. The "Ancient" 
Lodges were composed of merchants, mechanics 
and laborers. They were intensely democratic 
and sympathized with the cause of Independence. 

Our revolutionary fathers, at first averse to war 
with England and separation from the mother 
country, when finally forced to the issue, became 
not only political but religious, social, and frater- 
nal overturners. Before this expanding force the 
Provincial Grand Lodges and Grand Masters, in- 
stituted by and operating under the authority of 
foreign jurisdictions, gradually passed away and 
American independent Lodges superseded the 
English, Scotch, and Irish Jurisdictions. 



AMERICAN MASON 63 

Jefferson, aroused by the conduct of the British 
Parliament and imbued with radical ideas of re- 
publican simplicity, became the leader and the 
most aggressive in the movement to abolish all 
things English. In his revision of the Colonial 
statutes, he wiped out the power of the Church of 
England in America and gave to the world its first 
taste of absolute legalized religious liberty. His 
law of descent destroyed the system of primogeni- 
ture existing under the old regime, while his sa- 
tirical pen held up to scorn and ridicule the pomp 
and display of Cavalier society, and sounded the 
death knell of aping English customs, even in the 
Old Dominion. This violent spirit of revolt, 
grounded in deep resentment, permeated all classes 
and the advanced ideas of Otis, Franklin, the 
Adamses, Henry, and Jefferson were welcomed 
with satisfaction. 

The spirit of the delegates who met in Williams- 
burg, May 6, 1777, "for the purpose of considering 
the state of the fraternity in Virginia, its needs, 
and to canvass the question of placing at the head 
of the Craft a Grand Master" was that of most 
Masons of America at this time. They gave four 
reasons why a Grand Master should be appointed 
and a Grand Lodge organized. 

"First, We find that the Lodges in this State 



64 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

hold their charters undW five distinct and sep- 
arate authorities, viz.: The Grand Master of Eng- 
land, Scotland, Ireland, Pennsylvania and Amer- 
ica * (the last at second hand).f Of course all 
have a right to appoint their deputys, who can 
claim no authority over those not holding his prin- 

* There was no real Grand Lodge of America at this time. 
It expired with the death of Grand Master Montfort in 1776. 
Cabin Point Royal Arch Lodge derived its Charter from 
Grand Master Montfort, Apirl 13, 1775. It seems that some 
years afterwards the Grand Lodge at Richmond questioned 
the legality of the charter of this Lodge and in order to 
satisfy the companions, Mr. Henry Montfort sent them Joseph 
Montfort's commission, which was later returned with the 
following letter: 

Cabin Point, Va., May 15, 1789. 
Worthy Brothers: 

As a safe conveyance of papers of conse- 
quence from this place to Halifax is seldom to be met with, 
I enclose to the particular care of Dr. John I. Ammon, your 
Charter, which was brought into this place by my son who 
received it from Mr. Henry Montfort, in order to satisfy the 
Grand Lodge at Richmond concerning some doubts, concerning 
a degree of Masonry of the Cabin Point Royal Arch Lodge, 
which proved perfectly satisfactory. In the name of our 
lodge I return you sincere thanks for the use of your Charter 
and wish it safe to hand. 
I am with appreciative esteem, worthy brother 

Your most obedient and humble servant, 

James Belcher, Sr. 
Master, Cabin Point, Boyal Arch Lodge. 

It is worthy of note that Brother Belcher signs himself, 
"Master" of Royal Arch Lodge, while today his title would be 
High Priest of a Royal Arch Chapter. Mr. Henry Montfort, 
referred to, was the only son of Grand Master Montfort. He 
was a member of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina. 

*f-This refers to Cornelius Harnett appointed by Grand 
Master Montfort as Deputy Master. Harnett's authority was 
repudiated. With the death of Montfort, in 1776, The Grand 
Lodge of America expired. 



AMERICAN MASON 65 

cipal, Therefore any differences arising between 
Lodges holding differently cannot be settled for 
want of a common tribunal. For the same rea- 
son the Craft can never meet in annual communi- 
cation, manifesting that brotherly love and affec- 
tion the distinguishing characteristic of masonry 
from the beginning. Such divided and subdi- 
vided authority can never be productive of any 
real good to the Craft. 

''Secondly, We cannot discover upon strict en- 
quiry that Masonry has ever derived any benefit 
from the foreign appointment of a Grand Master 
in this country, they being little known, and as 
little acknowledged. 

"Thirdly, Being at this time without a supreme 
authority, and so circumstanced as to render it 
impossible to have recourse to the Grand Lodge 
beyond the sea, should any abuse creep into the 
Lodges or should any body of the Brotherhood be 
desirous of forming a new Lodge, there is no set- 
tled authority to apply to. In this case we are 
of the opinion that a Grand Lodge is a matter 
of necessity. 

"Fourthly and lastly. We find upon record that 
the Grand Lodge of England, Scotland and Ire- 
land, founded their original right of election upon 
their sole authority by mutual consent, distinct and 



66 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

separate from all for^n power whatever. We 
therefore conclude, that we have and ought to hold 
the same rights and priveledges Masons in all 
times heretofore have confessedly enjoyed." 

The spirit of transition probably began with the 
death of the gallant Warren at Bunker Hill. His 
blameless life and heroic death, coupled with his 
untiring zeal and devotion to the Fraternity, had a 
tremendous influence upon the Craft at large; 
carried the estrangement into the Fraternal breast, 
and in some Colonies hastened the establishment 
of independent organizations. For several years, 
however, after Warren's unfortunate death, the 
authority of the Provincial Grand Lodge and Grand 
Masters were duly recognized. It was hard to 
break away from the old fraternal parent, and in 
nearly every instance the Army Lodges chartered 
during the Revolutionary War, were creatures of 
those provincial parents. 

The existence of these Army Lodges accounts 
for the number of famous revolutionary characters 
known to have been Masons whose Masonic rec- 
ords cannot be consecutively traced and no dis- 
covery can be made of the time or place of their 
initiation, passing, or raising. Illustrious examples 
are Alexander Hamilton, Lafayette, John Marshall, 



AMERICAN MASON 67 

and there are numerous others about whose admis- 
sion into the Fraternity little or nothing is posi- 
tively known, and perhaps never will be. Some of 
these patriots became among the most prominent of 
the early Grand Masters and were zealous workers 
under the independent American plan of Masonry. 

The Revolution over and the army disbanded, 
the military Lodges as a rule ceased their labors. 
Their warrants were lost, their minutes scattered 
or destroyed in the confusion, and, in consequence, 
one of the most interesting epochs in the history 
of the Masonic Fraternity lies buried in impene- 
trable darkness. Numbers of the revolutionary 
officers who had been members of the Order be- 
fore the beginning of military operations, identi- 
fied themselves with these traveling Lodges, and 
at the conclusion of hostilities returned to their 
native states, or took up their residences in other 
sections of the country, continued in their old or 
adopted homes active participation in fraternal 
work. 

Notably among these we find General John 
Sullivan, first Grand Master and Governor of New 
Hampshire; Pierrepont Edwards, the first Grand 
Master of Connecticut; General James Jackson, 
Governor and Grand Master of Georgia; William 
Richardson Davies and Richard Caswell, both 



68 WASHINGTON 

Governors and Grand listers of North Carolina; 
General Rufus Putnam, first Grand Master of 
Ohio; General Mordecai Gist, Grand Master of 
South Carolina; Robert R. Livingston, Grand 
Master of New York; De Witt Clinton; John Mar- 
shall, afterwards Chief Justice of the United 
States; General David Wooster of Connecticut; 
Franklin and Milnor of Pennsylvania; Aaron 
Ogden of New Jersey; Paul Revere of Massachu- 
setts, and innumerable others who were instru- 
mental in establishing and promoting the Ameri- 
can institution of Masonry as it is today. 



JEWISH MASONS WHO HELPED 
WASHINGTON 

NOT many people know how our Jewish 
Masonic brethren helped Washington and 
the Colonies during the dark days of the American 
Revolution when our forefathers were waging the 
long war for American independence. As we 
begin this chapter we wish to mention the remark- 
able fact that this very intelligent and spiritually 
minded people find an outlet for their generous 
religious impulses in Masonry and kindred orders 
that they can find nowhere else. They transcend 
the barriers of race and creed which separate 
them from other groups of people holding different 
religious principles. 

They cannot work on terms of religious equality 
either with Protestants or Roman Catholics. It is 
the glory of Masonry founded upon such broad 
and universal principles as the Fatherhood of God, 
the Brotherhood of man, and the immortality of 
the soul, — that all spiritual humanity meet in this 
organization on the plane of equality. Masonry 

69 



70 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

by holding up the best ij^ach as worthy of imita- 
tion by all has the power of assimilating and 
molding into homogeneity the different races com- 
ing to America as no other organization has, so 
that the historian of the future will not fail to 
give due credit to the great part it has played in 
making American characer. 

The part played by Jewish Masons during the 
American Revolution, when their number is con- 
sidered, is one of the unwritten romances of our 
history, for at that time there were not more than 
3000 Jews in all North America. They were duly 
and truly prepared for American citizenship by 
centuries of persecution in Europe. Out of the 46 
prominent Jews, who are known to be members of 
Masonic Lodges at that time, more than half of 
them, 24, were officers in the Continental Army. 

Major Benjamin Nones, a native of Bordeaux, 
France, who came to America in 1777, served on 
the staff of both Washington and Lafayette. 
Colonel Isaac Frank became aid-de-camp to 
Washington, holding the rank of colonel on his 
staff, and served with distinction throughout the 
war. 

Major Nones, Captain De La Motta, Captain 
De Leon, three Jewish officers, carried Baron 
De Kalb from the field of battle, mortally 



AMERICAN MASON 71 

wounded, and the brave Baron was laid to rest 
with Masonic honors. 

We should not be surprised at the part played 
by the Jews during the American Revolution when 
we remember that love of liberty and democracy is 
a passion which has burned with an increasing 
steadiness and an undiminished luster longer and 
stronger in their hearts than in those of any other 
people in the world. They rallied to the cause of 
the Colonies from Massachusetts in the far north 
to Georgia in the far south, that colony founded by 
the great philanthropist, statesman and Mason, 
General Oglethorpe, who was one of the founders 
of Solomon's Lodge, No. 1, Savannah, Georgia, in 
1735, one of the oldest Lodges in America. Ogle- 
thorpe's friendly reception of the Jews in 1733, 
upon their arrival from England, has been noted 
by historians. The reason is simple to a Mason. 
Among them were such men as Isaac De Val, David 
Nunes, weigher for the port of Savannah, and 
Moses Nunes, searcher for the port of Savannah; 
Mordecai Sheftall and his son, Sheftall Sheftall, 
both of whom served on the American side during 
the American Revolution. Solomon's Lodge was 
well represented in the patriotic army. Among the 
patriots we find such names as Stephens, Jackson, 
Houston, Stirk, the Habershams, well-known Gen- 



72 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

tile Georgia Masons, and the Jewish Sheftalls, 
father and son. Levi Sneftall, brother of Morde- 
cai Sheftall, signed the address as President of the 
Hebrew Congregation of Savannah, to Washington 
in 1790, and was presented by General Jackson, 
who was the Grand Master of Masons in Georgia. 

Passing northward to Philadelphia we find that 
some of the most distinguished members of Lodge 
No. 2, Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania, 
were zealous Jewish patriots in those trying days. 
Among them were Solomon Bush, Isaac La Costa, 
Simon Nathan, Samuel Myers, Bernard M. Spitzer, 
Thomas M. Randall, Benjamin Seixas and Moses 
Cohen, most of whom were members of Mikre 
Israel of Philadelphia, of which Zalegman Phillips, 
the father of that distinguished lawyer, the late 
Henry M. Phillips, was Pamas, or President. 
These men were all Masons and stood together in 
sustaining General Washington in our first fight 
for liberty. 

They were ably seconded and supported by our 
Brother Moses Michael Hays, of Massachusetts, 
Grand Master, who is buried in the ancient Jewish 
Cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island. The cele- 
brated Paul Revere served as Deputy Grand Mas- 
ter under Hays, from which we may understand 
his standing and influence. 



AMERICAN MASON 73 

Many Philadelphia families of equal position 
like that of Morse, Samuel, Gratz, Phillips, Cohen, 
Etting, Marks, Gomez, Sartor, Pereyra, Gumpert, 
Peixotto, Hackenberg, Levy, Nathans, Wolf, Hyne- 
man, Nones, Solomon, Lipman, Cromelien, Segar, 
Fridenberg, Da Costa, Abrahams, and a host of 
others who lie sleeping in the Jewish Cemetery, 
called Beth Hahaim, the house of the living, on 
Spruce Street below Ninth, Philadelphia, supported 
the Revolutionary cause with the same zeal they 
gave to their civil and religious duties. 

Finally, to bring a long list of names and heroic 
deeds of patriotic service to a close, we cannot fail 
to mention two or three more who gave undying 
zeal to the cause of the Colonies in their agonizing 
birth as a new nation. These names are Hyam 
Salomon, Isaac Moses, Benjamin Levy and Morde- 
cai Noah. 

Hyam Salomon, member of Solomon Lodge, 
No. 2, Ancient York Masons, at the request of 
Robert Morris in the dark days of the Revolution, 
loaned to the Colonials $658,000, nothing of which 
has been repaid. He also loaned to Jefferson, 
Madison, Lee and others to defray their personal 
expenses. He was captured by the British, thrown 
into prison and died there. We would like to see 
a monument erected to him in Washington that all 



74 WASHINGTON 

the nation may know it^reat indebtedness to the 
Jewish people during the American Revolution. 

Isaac Moses and Benjamin Levy also advanced 
considerable funds for the cause, and Mordecai 
Noah, of South Carolina, an officer of Washington's 
staff, gave $100,000 to the government for carrying 
on the war. These are only a few selected out of 
the long roll of Jewish American patriots and 
Masons who upheld the strong arm of Washington 
from 1776 till the close of the war. 

In conclusion, to drop the role of the historian 
and take up that of the prophet, surely you have 
caught a glimpse of the unique and inestimable 
work the Masonic Lodge is doing to make out of the 
diverse races and nationalities in the United States, 
in spite of the discordant elements, one homogene- 
ous people; one in hope and aspiration, one in love 
of our common flag and country, one in the service 
of humanity and God, a brotherhood and sister- 
hood in which each shall contribute something of 
worth to our common heritage, so that finally when 
we really learn what the Fatherhood of God and 
the Brotherhood of man mean, then shall come that 
far-off divine event when there will be neither 
Jew, Greek nor Barbarian, but the one family of 
the one God of us all! This ideal of the Masonic 
Lodge makes it worthy of our undying devotion 
and the love of every American citizen. 



RIGHT WORSHIPFUL JOSEPH MONTFORT 

ON the Roanoke river, eight miles from Wel- 
don, North Carolina, is the ancient and his- 
toric village of Halifax, which has played a part 
out of all proportion to its size in making Amer- 
ican history. In its palmy days it was the Capitol 
of the Province of North Carolina, and had a 
population of 1000 inhabitants; it now has 300. 
Here lived two men of great and outstanding im- 
portance, both in the life of Masonry and in the 
annals of our country. One was the Right Wor- 
shipful Joseph Montfort, who is claimed to be the 
first, last, and only man who was Grand Master of 
all Masons in America; the other Mason was John 
Paul Jones, the father of the American Navy and 
the greatest naval genius, perhaps, that ever lived. 
And here still stands the Temple of Royal White 
Hart Lodge, the oldest Masonic Temple in the 
World, in which the brethren of this famous lodge 
still hold their sessions. 

Washington's visit to Halifax 

Washington, on his tour through the Southern 
75 



76 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

States in 1791, visited Halifax. In his diary he 
makes the following comments: 

1791. Saturday, April 16th. 
... At this place (i.e. Halifax) I arrived about six 
o'clock, after crossing the Roanoke; on the South bank 
of which it stands. 

The River is crossed in flat Boats which take a car- 
riage and four horses at once. — At this time, being low, 
the water was not rapid but at times it must be much 
so, as it frequently overflows its banks which appear 
to be at least 25 ft. perpendicular height. 

The lands upon the River appear rich & the low 
grounds of considerable width — but those lay between 
the difi'erent Rivers — namely Appomattox, Nottaway, 
Meherin, and Roanoke are alike flat, poor & covered 
principally with pine timber. 

It has already been observed that before the Rain fell, 
I was travelling in a continual cloud of dust — but after 
it had rained some time, the Scene was reversed, and 
my passage was through water; so level are the roads. 

From Petersburgh to Hallifax (in sight of the Road) 
are but few good Houses, with small appearance of 
wealth. — The lands are cultivated in Tobacco — Corn, — 
Wheat & Oats, but Tobacco and the raising of Porke 
for market, seems to be the principal dependence of the 
Inhabitants; especially towards the Roanoke. — Cotton & 
Flax are also raised but not entensively. 

Halifax is the first town I came to after passing the 
line between the two States, and about 20 miles from 



AMERICAN MASON 77 

it. — To this place vessels by aid of Oars and Setting 
poles are brought for the produce which comes to this 
place, and others along the River; and may be carried 
8 or 10 miles higher to the falls which are neither 
great nor of much extent; — above these (which are 
called the great falls) there are others; but none but 
what may with a little improvement be passed. This 
town stands upon high gound ; and it is the reason given 
for not placing it at the head of the navigation there 
being none but low ground between it and the falls — It 
seems to be in a decline & does not it is said contain 
a thousand Souls. 

Sunday, 17th. 
Col. Ashe the Representative of the district in which 
this town stands, and several other gentlemen called 
upon, and invited me to partake of a dinner which the 
Inhabitants were desirous of seeing me at & accepting 
it dined with them accordingly. 

John B. Ashe, to whom Washington refers in his 
diary, was a soldier of the Revolution under Gen- 
eral Greene, a member of the Continental Congress 
in 1787, a representative in the Federal Congress 
from 1790 to 1793, and afterwards elected gov- 
ernor of the State. 

EARLY RECORDS OF MASONS IN HALIFAX 

The first meetings of the Masons in Halifax, 
recorded in their old Minute Book, in 1764 and 



78 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

1765, are so interesting to the Masonic student that 
we reproduce them. ^ 

At a Lodge held at Andw. Troughtons, the 26 day 
of April 5764. Present the Masters Wardens and the 
rest of the Honorable Society. Joseph Long and 
Henry Dowse was Raised to the Degree of Master 
Masons and David Stokes and Fredk. Simmons was 
passed as fellow Crafts. Then the Lodge adjourned. 

At a full Mason's Lodge held at the house of Daniel 
Lovel in the Town of Halifax on the 18th day of April 
in the year of Masonry 5765. 

Vresent. 
Fred K. Schulzer, G. Master David Stokes 
Daniel Lovel, D. Master Joseph Long 

Will Martin, Secretary Henry Dowse 

Robt. Goodloe, Sen. Warden Andw. Troughton 
Jas. Matt Ince, Jun. Warden Joseph Montfort 

Will Wilson, Sen. Stewart Peter Thompson 

John Geddy, Jun. Stewart Brothers 

Resolved that it shall be a perpetual rule of this 
Lodge that when any strange Brother shall desire to be 
admitted as a member thereof he shall first pay the 
sum Forty Shillings Virginia Currency, or the value 
thereof to the Treasurer for the time being and pay 
the expenses of that fitting in case a Lodge be called 
for that purpose. 

Resolved that Brothers John Delsach, James Matt 
Ince and Joseph Long be a committee of this Lodge to 
meet the like number to be appointed by the Royal 
White Heart Lodge, with full power to settle and make 



AMERICAN MASON 79 

Divisions of all monies or other matters belonging to 
the former Royal White Heart Lodge and to settle the 
proportions due to each Lodge, on such terms as to 
them shall seem Just and Equitable, and report their 
proceedings to the next setting here. 

Resolved that Brother Troughton's House is ap- 
pointed for holding the Lodges until it is thought 
proper to make another choice. Then the Lodge was 
adjourned. 

To the Masonic student these old minutes reveal 
some interesting facts. First, that the Master of 
the Lodge was called Grand Master and had a 
Deputy Master to assist him. We know of only one 
other Lodge whose Master in its earliest records 
was called Grand Master, and that is the Lodge at 
Fredericksburg, Va. If any brother knows of 
others will he kindly let us know? It is another im- 
portant fact that the Lodge in its earliest meetings 
met at the homes of the brethren, and that the Mas- 
ter's chair, purchased in 1765, was carried to the 
house where the Lodge met. We have never seen 
any other like it. And lastly these records show 
that at the time they were written, in 1764, there 
were two Masonic Lodges in Halifax, apparently in 
a flourishing condition. It is not known when these 
Lodges were organized. The earliest spelling of 
the Lodge's name is Heart and not Hart. 



80 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

JOSEPH MONTFORT 

Joseph Montfort was present at the second re- 
corded meeting of the Lodge. He came of a family 
which had been powerful and potent far back in the 



The Master's Chair of Royal White Hart Lodge 

days of Norman dominion in England, when it was 
allied by marriage with the royal house of the 
Plantagenets; but like many other noble families 
of those early times, its members lost their titles 
and estates in the civil discords which racked Eng- 
land throughout the succeeding centuries. 

Montfort was bom in England about the year 




RIGHT WORSHIPFUL JOSEPH MONTFORT 

Grand Master of and for America from 1771 to 1776. 
Master of Royal White Hart Lodge, Halifax, North 
Carolina from 1767 until his death, 1776 



AMERICAN MASON 81 

1724, and came to the Province of North Carolina, 
with which he was destined to be conspicuously- 
identified for many years. In the course of 
time he became Clerk of the Court of Edge- 
comb County before Halifax County was erected 
out of a part of its territory. Then he became 
Clerk of the County Court of Halifax and of the 
District of Halifax, which embraced several coun- 
ties, Commissioner of the town of Halifax, member 
of the Colonial Assembly, Colonel of the Provincial 
troops, Treasurer of the northern Counties of the 
Province, Commissioner for the Management of 
North Carolina Affairs in England, and a member 
of the Provincial Congress which met in Newbern 
in April, 1775. 

Though a pronounced Whig in the politics of 
that day, failing health prevented his active par- 
ticipation in the Revolution, and he died in the 
early stages of that war, on March 25, 1776. 
He married Miss Priscilla Hill, November 15, 
1753, a daughter of Colonel Benjamin Hill of 
Bertie County who had come to North Carolina 
from Nasemond County, Virginia. She was one of 
the famous beauties of that day, and lived to rear 
her children and train them for the responsibili- 
ties of life. 

Joseph Montfort had three children, Henry 



82 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

Montfort, his only son, who married but left no 
descendents ; Mary, wh^hiarried Willie Jones, the 
famous North Carolina statesman; and Elizabeth, 
who married another famous North Carolinian, 
Colonel John Baptista Ashe. It is from the Hon. 
and Mrs. Willie Jones that John Paul, the father 
of the American navy, took the name of "Jones." 
Joseph Montfort was made a Mason before he 
left England, and he began at once upon his ar- 
rival to promote the interests of Masonry, and was 
closely identified with Royal White Hart Lodge 
from the time of his arrival in Halifax until his 
death in 1776. 

ROYAL WHITE HART LODGE NO. 403 IN THE LIST OF 
ENGLISH LODGES 

In the Old Minute Book, May 20, 1768, is the 
following record: 

"Present: Joseph Montfort, Master; James Milner, 
Sr. Warden; Andrew Miller, Jr. Warden; John Thomp- 
son, Treasurer; Matthew Brown, Secretary; William 
Martin, one of the Stewards; Joseph Long, Peter 
Thompson, John Martin, David Stokes, Charles Pas- 
teur, John Geddy and James Auld, members." "The 
lodge being opened in ample form, the Worshipful 
Master produced a charter from the Grand Master of 
England, to wit: Henry Somerset, Duke of Beaufort 
and Grand Master of Masons in England, appointing 



AMERICAN MASON 63 

the above named Joseph Montfort, Master, Joseph 
Long, Sr. Warden and Matthew Brown, Jr. Warden, a 
regular constituted lodge of free and accepted Masons 
by the name of Royal White Hart Lodge at the town of 
Halifax and Province of North Carolina, the same 
bearing date at London the 21st of March, A. L. 5767, 
the same being No. 403 in the list of English lodges, 
regular constituted, upon which the question was put 
whether the same should be admitted and it was then 
unanimously and gratefully received, and it was or- 
dered that the Secretary write a letter to the Grand 
Lodge of England, returning thanks for the honor which 
the Grand Master had been pleased to confer on them. 
Then, in order that the lodge should be opened agree- 
able to the said Charter, this Lodge was closed. 

"Joseph Montfort, Master." 

To the modern Mason one of the noticeable things 
in the old minutes of the Lodge is that the minutes 
were signed by the Master and not the Secretary. 
I failed to notice when, in the history of this Lodge, 
the Secretary began to sign the minutes. 

MASONIC TEMPLE BUILT 

The Records of May, 1769, show that the Lodge 
resolved to build a Masonic Temple at Halifax: 

"Whereas we, the subscribers esteem it publicly 
beneficial to promote society and laudably to increase 
the means of obtaining benefit and happiness to those 
whom we are most nearly connected, and whereas it is 



84 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

proposed and agreed to improve a lot in the town of 
Halifax, to wit: No. 1^ so that the accommodation 
thereon may serve for various purposes, particularly 
that of a Masonic Hall and Assembly Room, we there- 
fore obligate ourselves, our Heirs, Executors and Ad- 
ministrators respectively, to pay or cause to be paid 
on demand, to John Thompson, Esq., his Executors 
or Administrators, the sums annexed to our respective 
names, for the purpose of improving the said lot, he 
with the approbation of the Royal White Hart Lodge 
shall think proper. Joseph Montfort, a lot and house, 
deed executed. Andrew Miller, ten pounds, J. 0. Long, 
ten pounds, Frederick Schulzer, ten pounds, John Thomp- 
son, ten pounds, Alexander Telfair, ten pounds, James 
Milner, ten pounds, Charles Presten, five pounds, 
William Martin, five pounds, F. Stewart, ten pounds, 
David Stokes, five pounds, Peter Thompson, five pounds, 
Joseph Campbell, five pounds, James Auld, three 
pounds." 

These subscriptions are aU marked paid, and the 
brethren of Royal White Hart Lodge tell me that 
the house and lot given by Joseph Montfort was 
worth $1500.00 and this added to what the other 
brethren gave for the purpose of building this 
Masonic Temple, made $2000.00 subscribed and 
paid in one meeting. Certainly this large sum 
which these brethren gave shows in no uncertain 
way the great value they placed upon Masonry. 
Notice how broad their conception of Masonry 



AMERICAN MASON 85 

was — "beneficial to promote society and laud- 
ibly to increase the means of obtaining benefit 
and happiness to those whom we are most nearly 
connected, so that it may serve for various pur- 
poses, particularly that of a Masonic Hall." 

It was with awe and reverence that I was con- 
ducted through this old Masonic Temple by 
Brother Gary, the Clerk of the Court at Halifax. I 
found the building to be 30 x 30, square and two 
stories. The lower story has three rooms; the 
larger one, the entire length of the building, was 
used for a banquetting room, and two adjoining 
rooms, on either side of the stairway, were used 
as recitation rooms. This building has not been 
used for a school room since 1829, I am told; yet 
the blackboards are in apparently as good condi- 
tion as when they were painted over a hundred 
years ago. 

FREE mason's HALL IN LONDON 

Joseph Montfort was the largest contributor to 
the building of Free Mason's Hall in London, and 
the brethren in Halifax tell me that it was the 
building of their Temple that inspired the Grand 
Lodge of England to build the first Masonic Temple 
in England. The first proceedings of the Grand 



86 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

Lodge of England whiojJF refer to this Temple are 
as follows: 

"At a quarterly communication of the Most Ancient 
and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons 
under the Constitution of England, the Most Noble 
Prince Henry Somerset, Duke of Beaufort, etc.. Grand 
Master, held at the Crown and Anchor in the Strand, 
February 6th, 1771. Present: The Hon. R. W. Chas. 
Dillon, Esq., D.G.M. as G.M.; Rowland Holt, Esq., 
S.G.W. as D.G.M.; Sir Watkyn Williams Wynne Bart, 
J.G.W. as S.G.W. ; Chas. Taylor, Esq., P.J.G.W. as 
J.G.W.; Mr. Henry Jaffray, P.J.G.W.; John Alles, Esq., 
Prov. G.M. for Lancashire; John Devignoles, Esq., 
Prov. G.M. for Foreign Lodges; Rowland Berkley, 
G.T.; James Haseltine, G.S.; William Smith, Grand 
Sword Bearer; and the Masters and Wardens of several 
lodges, when the following contributions were paid into 
the general fund, viz.: 

Then follows a list of fifty-five subscriptions ag- 
gregating one hundred and twenty-six pounds, the 
largest of which is as follows: "Joseph Montfort, 
Esq., of North Carolina, ten pounds and ten shil- 
lings." This was Joseph Montfort's contribution 
towards the building of Free Mason's Hall in 
London, as the funds raised during these years and 
at this time were applied to that purpose, and the 
Grand Lodge of England was soliciting subscrip- 
tions from Masons all over the world. 



AMERICAN MASON 87 

JOSEPH MONTFORT APPOINTED GRAND MASTER OF 
ALL MASONS IN AMERICA 

The most important meeting perhaps ever held 
in the Lodge at Halifax is recorded in the Records 
of the Minutes, March 13, 1772: 

"Brother Joseph Montfort visited the Lodge and pro- 
duced a Charter from the Grand Master of England, 
the Duke of Beaufort, etc., dated January, 14th, A. L. 
5771, appointed him Provincial Grand Master of 
America, which was recognized, and he was accord- 
ingly congratulated by the Lodge and offered the Chair, 
which he declined." 

The following is a copy of this Charter which 
is the authority for one Royal Arch Chapter 
in Virginia, and all the lodges in North Carolina 
and Tennessee, with two or three exceptions. 

Copy of Commission appointing Joseph Montfort Worshipful 

Master of Royal White Hart Lodge, Halifax, North 

Carolina, Grand Master of Masons Of and 

For America. 

(Seal) Beaufort, G. M. 

TO ALL AND EVERY OUR RIGHT WORSHIPFUL, 
WORSHIPFUL, AND LOVING BRETHREN. WE, HENRY 
SOMERSET, DUKE OF BEAUFORT, MARQUIS & EARL 
OF WORCESTER, EARL OF GLAMORGAN, VISCOUNT 
GROSMONT, BARON HERBERT, LORD OF RAGLAND, 
CHEPSTOW & GOWER, BARON BEAUFORT OF CALDE- 
COT CASTLE, GRAND MASTER OF THE MOST AN- 
CIENT AND HONORABLE SOCIETY OF FREE AND 
ACCEPTED MASONS, Greeting: 

Know ye that We, of the great Trust and Confidence reposed 
in our Right Worshipful and well beloved Brother, Joseph 
Montfort, Esquire, of Halifax, in the Province of North Caro- 
lina, in America, Do hereby Constitute and appoint him the 



88 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

said Joseph Montfort, Provii^kl Grand Master Of and For 
America, with full power and authority in due form to make 
Masons & Constitute and Regulate Lodges, as Occasion may 
Require. 

*********** 

And we hereby Will and Require you our said PROVIN- 
CIAL GRAND MASTER to cause four Quarterly Communica- 
tions to be held Yearly, one whereof to be upon or as near the 
Feast Day of Saint John the Baptist as conveniently may be, 
and that you promote on those and all other occasions whatever 
may be for the honour and Advantage of Masonry and the 
Benefit of the Grand Charity, and that You yearly send to us 
or our Successors, Grand Masters, an Account in Writing of 
the proceedings therein and also of what Lodges you Consti- 
tute and when and where held with a list of the Members 
thereof & copies of all such Rules, Orders and Regulations as 
shall be made for the good Government of the same, with what- 
ever else you shall do by Virtue of these Presents. And that 
you at the same time remit to the Treasurer of the Society of 
the time being at London, Three Pounds, Three Shillings ster- 
ling for every Lodge you shall Constitute, for the use of the 
Grand Charity and other necessary purposes. 

Given at London under our Hand & Seal of Masonry this 
I4.th day of January, A. L. 5771, A. D. 1771. 
By the Grand Master's Command: 

CHAS. DILLON, D. G. M. 
Witness: JAS. HASELTINE, G. S. 



CLAIMS OF NORTH CAROLINA 

Brother Lang in his History of Freemasonry in 
the State of New York, says, page 12: "Consulting 
the published records of the Grand Lodge of Eng- 
land, we find the only deputations to Provincial 
Grand Masters for various parts of North America, 
there mentioned, were the following:" Then he 
gives the list from 1729 to 1762, and says, "As 
Coxe was appointeod, in 1730, for New York, New 
Jersey and Pennsylvania, it is evident that some 



AMERICAN MASON 89 

allowance must be made for the list, at any rate 
for the period before 1736." 

The North Carolina brethren will claim that the 
list leaves out the first, last, and only Grand Master 
of America, Joseph Montfort. Marshall de Lancy 
Haywood, Grand Historian for the Grand Lodge 
of North Carolina, says: "The claim made for the 
primacy of Montfort over other Provincial Grand 
Masters of America (of whom there were several) 
lies in the fact that the commissions of the others 
limited their powers to those parts of the Continent 
where no other Provincial Grand Master exercised 
jurisdiction, while Montfort was given absolute au- 
thority without this limitation." Brother Lang 
agrees with Brother Haywood in thus limiting the 
authority of the Provincial Grand Masters before 
Montfort, whom he does not mention. This leaves 
Montfort without a rival for the claims asserted for 
him by the Grand Lodge of North Carolina. 

DANIEL COXE 

"The valuable labors of the committee named by the 
Grand Lodges of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New 
Jersey have demonstrated the fact that the first appoint- 
ment of a Provincial Grand Master in this country was 
issued to R. W. Brother Daniel Coxe of New Jersey. 
The only record of the exercise of his authority, so 
far as has been found, is in connection with a Masonic 
Lodge meeting at Sun Tavern, in Water St., Phila- 



90 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

delphia. In the Fall of X730 they made application 
to the Grand Lodge of England for a Charter, but 
Daniel Coxe had been appointed Provincial Grand 
Master and they obtained a Charter from him. Coxe 
was present at the meeting of the Grand Lodge of Eng- 
land, Jan. 29, 1731, when his health was drunk as 
Provincial Grand Master of North America. His powers 
were limited to two years, after which the brethren were 
granted authority to elect their own Provincial Grand 
Master. — Early History of the Proceedings of the Grand 
Lodge of the State of New York, Vol. 1, pages i-vi, 
published by authority of the Grand Lodge, 1876. 

HENRY PRICE 

Henry Price may have been appointed Provincial 
Grand Master for New England, in 1733, especially as 
he acted as such, and his acts were subsequently ap- 
proved and confirmed by the Grand Lodge of Eng- 
land. ... He was at London, in 1733. In this year he 
claimed to have obtained from Viscount Montague, who 
was Grand Master that year, a deputation appointing him 
Provincial Grand Master for New England. . . . There 
is no convincing evidence that Henry Price was given 
jurisdiction "over the whole of North America," in 1734, 
or at any other time, though the impression got abroad 
that he was, and he encouraged the unsubstantiated 
assumption. Neither had he the right to appoint Pro- 
vincial Grand Masters anywhere. That right belonged 
to the Grand Master of England and could not be exer- 
cised lawfully by any other, except by special warrant, 
as, for instance, by a patent such as was given to Daniel 
Coxe for New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, or 



AMERICAN MASON 91 

deputations later issued to Thomas Oxnard and Jeremy 
Gridley. — History of Freemasonry in the State of New 
York, by Ossian Lang. 

ROBERT TOMLINSON 

The Earl of Loudon, Grand Master, in 1736, appointed 
Robert Tomlinson Provincial Grand Master for New 
England, to succeed Henry Price. — History of Free- 
masonry in the State of New York, by Ossian Lang. 

THOMAS OXNARD 

Oxnard was from Durham, England, and came to 
Boston before 1737. He was a merchant and importer 
of foreign wares. In 1740 he was one of the promoters 
of the so-called "Silver Scheme," organized by an asso- 
ciation of Boston merchants, who issued their notes, in 
opposition to the Land Bank or "Manufactury Scheme," 
for the purpose of furnishing a circulating medium, 
which was greatly needed at the time. On March 6, 
1744, he was installed as Provincial Grand Master of 
Masons in New England, being the third incumbent of 
that office. The residence of Mr. Oxnard was on 
Tremont Street, "at some distance back from the road; 
the lot on which it stood extending from Winter to the 
next street running parallel with it on the north." — The 
Site of St. PauVs Cathedral, Boston and Its Neighbor- 
hood, pages 196-198, by Robert Means Lawrence. 

The first Provincial Grand Master to be designated 
officially for North America, was Thomas Oxnard, a 
socially prominent resident of Boston. The patent of 
appointment was issued to him by Lord Ward, Grand 



92 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

Master, in 1742. As ther^jvere duly accredited Pro- 
vincial Grand Masters in other North American Colonies, 
the assumption is justified that Oxnardls authority was 
to extend only to territory not otherwise assigned spe- 
cifically to another. A mistaken sense of his powers 
induced him, in 1749, to appoint Benjamin Franklin 
Provincial Grand Master for Pennsylvania. That this 
appointment was not seriously taken in England is evi- 
denced from the fact that, a few months later, Lord 
Byron, Grand Master, issued a patent creating William 
Allen, Recorder of Philadelphia, Provincial Grand 
Master for Pennsylvania, who . . . appointed Franklin 
his deputy, and Franklin understood. — History of Free- 
masonry in the State of New York, by Ossian Lang. 

JEREMY GRIDLEY 

Oxnard died on June 26th, 1754, and on April 4th, 
1755, Colonel Jeremy Gridley, Attorney General for 
Massachusetts, was appointed to succeed him. The 
patent was issued by Lord Byron, Grand Master, and 
conferred authority over "all such provinces and places 
in North America and the territories thereof, of which 
no Provincial Grand Master is at present appointed." — 
History of Freemasonry in the State of New York, by 
Ossian Lang. 

Brother Gowen in his booklet, The Story of the 
Right Worshipful Joseph Montfort, after making 
the same statement as Brother Haywood, says: 

"The Provincial Grand Master for Foreign Lodges at 
this- time was John Devignoles, and not Joseph DeVinold, 



AMERICAN MASON 93 

as a Masonic historian has recently stated, but at this 
time America was becoming great and important, and 
Masonic America was knocking at the door of the Grand 
Lodge of England for the appointment of a Provincial 
Grand Master of America. The Grand Lodge of Boston, 
known as St. John's Provincial Grand Lodge, urgently 
sought the honor of becoming the Grand Lodge of 
America, but only succeeded in obtaining authority to 
establish lodges in those parts of America where no 
local Provincial Grand Master held authority. Joseph 
Montfort's authority was absolute and supreme in all 
parts of America, then British possessions, and he estab- 
lished lodges and chapters within the jurisdictions of 
local Grand Masters at his will and pleasure, and he 
attained the highest Masonic position ever held by any 
man on this continent when he received his appointment 
as Grand Master of and for America." 

But in all this discussion we should not forget 
that the Grand Lodge of England could not give 
authority that would be recognized by' all the 
Lodges, even within any one colony, because their 
charters were derived from four distinct and ex- 
clusive Grand Lodges in existence at that time in 
Great Britain. But it seems to me that it is proven 
that the Premier Grand Lodge of England did ap- 
point Joseph Montfort Grand Master of all the 
Masons of America over whom it had jurisdiction 
in 1771, the highest honor ever conferred upon 
any Mason in America. 



94 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

THE GRAND LODGES OF NORTH CAROLINA AND TEN- 
NESSEE DERIVE THE TENURE OF THEIR AU- 
THORITY FROM THE COMMISSION OF 
JOSEPH MONTFORT AS PROVINCIAL 
GRAND MASTER OF AMERICA 

In this connection and in proof of the above 
statement, on March 27, 1812, Robert Williams, 
Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of North 
Carolina and Tennessee, wrote a letter to Royal 
White Hart Lodge asking it to surrender the Com- 
mission appointing Joseph Montfort Grand Master 
of America to the Grand Lodge of North Carolina. 
The letter is as follows: 

To the Officers and Members of 
Royal White Lodge, No. 2, 
Halifax, N, C. 
Right Worshipful Sirs and Brethren: 

Lately I have received into my possession, as 
a loan, a commission signed by Charles Dillon, 
Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Eng- 
land, impressed with a coat of arms of the Duke 
of Beaufort, Grand Master thereof, dated January 
14th, A. L. 5771, A. D. 1771, constituting and ap- 
pointing Joseph Montfort, Esq., Provincial Grand 
Master of America. Brothers, it is from this au- 
thority that our Grand Lodge now holds the tenure 



AMERICAN MASON 95 

of its sovereignty, that this Provincial Grand 
Master did, by virtue of his said commission, con- 
stitute and establish lodges in his then Majesty's 
Provinces: That after the Revolution was over, 
these regularly constituted lodges met in conven- 
tion at Tarboro, when the present Grand Lodge of 
North Carolina and Tennessee became constituted 
and organized. I do now, in behalf of myself and 
our Grand Lodge solicit the Right Worshipful 
White Hart Lodge No. 2, Halifax, that they would 
be so good as to surrender the possession of this 
instrument to our Grand Lodge, AS IT IS THE 
ORIGINAL CHARTER FROM WHENCE WE 
ARE ALL DERIVED. We are emboldened to ask 
this of your Right Worshipful Body as the pos- 
session thereof by you cannot be supposed in any 
manner to add to the authority by which you sit 
and perform business. The granting of this re- 
quest by you will be gratefully acknowledged, and 
received by our most Worshipful Grand Lodge and 
particularly by your most obedient servant and 
brother, Robert Williams. 

Grand Master of the Grand Lodge 
of North Carolina and Tennessee, 

Royal White Hart Lodge did not at that time 
grant this request, but since has, and the Commis- 



96 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

sion of Joseph Montfor^ appointing him Grand 
Master of and for America, is now in possession 
of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina at Raleigh. 

WHY MONTFORT WAS SELECTED FOR THIS GREAT 
HONOR 

There are many reasons why he was selected for 
this great honor. His social and political promi- 
nence, the splendid and exact work which he did, 
his prompt and regular remittances to the Grand 
Lodge of England, which example was not followed 
to any extent by the majority of American Masters 
and Lodges at this time and his idea of building a 
Masonic Temple which was absolutely new, both 
in England and America, made a deep impression 
upon the Grand Lodge of England when they re- 
ceived the report, and it undoubtedly inspired them 
to build Free Mason's Hall in London for they at 
once began raising funds for this purpose and four 
years later completed that structure. Free Mason's 
Lodge erected in Philadelphia by Benjamin Frank- 
lin and his associates a short time before on the 
north side of Chestnut Street, between 7th and 8th 
streets, was the first Masonic Temple to be erected 
in America or in the world. It was torn down in 
1801. The Temple at Halifax was the second to 
be built, and as it is still standing, it is the oldest 
Masonic Temple in the world. 



AMERICAN MASON 97 

Up to this time, it was the custom of the Masonic 
Lodges to meet in taverns ; the Grand Lodge of Eng- 
land at this time held its meetings at the "Crown 
and Anchor" in the Strand, London, and at the erec- 
tion of the temple at Halifax, Royal White Hart 
Lodge met at "Brother William Martin's Tavern at 
the Sign of the Thistle." In 1776 the Duke of 
Beaufort was elected Grand Master of the Grand 
Lodge of England; the Province of North Carolina 
had honored the Duke of Beaufort by naming a 
city and a county, Beaufort, North Carolina, and 
in this fact we find another reason why Montfort 
received this appointment, the Duke of Beaufort 
choosing a North Carolina man for Provincial 
Grand Master of America in return for this honor. 
It is easy to be seen why Montfort was the last as 
well as the first Provincial Grand Master of Amer- 
ica. The Revolutionary War completely separated 
the two countries, politically and Masonically. 

In the grounds of Royal White Hart Lodge and 
in front of the Temple is a beautiful recumbent 
slab of polished granite erected to his memory by 
the Masons of America in 1911. The inscription 
on it reads as follows: 



98 WASHINGTON 



THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL 

JOSEPH MONTFORT 

BORN IN ENGLAND, A.D. 1724 

DIED IN HALIFAX, N. C. 

MARCH 25, A.D. 1776 



APPOINTED PROVINCIAL GRAND 

MASTER OF AND FOR 

AMERICA ON JAN. 14, A.L. 5771 (a.D. 1771) 

BY THE DUKE OF BEAUFORT 

GRAND MASTER OF THE GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND, F.&A.M. 

FIRST CLERK OF THE COURT OF HALIFAX COUNTY 

TREASURER OF THE COLONY OF NORTH CAROLINA 

COLONEL OF COLONIAL TROOPS 

MEMBER OF PROVINCIAL CONGRESS 

ORATOR — STATESMAN — PATRIOT — SOLDIER 

THE HIGHEST MASONIC OFFICIAL EVER REIGNING 

ON THIS CONTINENT 

THE FIRST — THE LAST — THE ONLY 

GRAND MASTER OF AMERICA 

The bronze tablet on the gate opening to the 
monument has this inscription: 

THE GRAVE OF MONTFORT 

THIS GATE SWINGS ONLY BY ORDER 

OF THE WORSHIPFUL MASTER OF 

ROYAL WHITE HART LODGE 

TO ADMIT PILGRIM MASONS 



JOHN PAUL JONES 

HALIFAX in the Province of North Carolina 
has not only given us Joseph Montfort, the 
great Mason, patriot and statesman, and his two 
brilliant and patriotic daughters, Mary and Eliza- 
beth; but more especially its name and fame are in- 
separably linked with America's great naval hero, 
John Paul Jones. In Halifax he found men and 
women who appreciated his genius, and gave him 
the opportunity of exercising it as an officer in the 
navy of the United States during the Revolution. 
Our purpose is not to give the details of his life, but 
to shed light on the "obscure years" of 1773-1775, 
in which he came to live in America, took the name 
of "Jones," and sided with the colonies in the war 
with England. But before we do this, we will give 
a sketch of his Masonic career. 

HIS MASONIC CAREER 

Before he took the name of "Jones/* he was 
made a Mason in Scotland in 1770. 

(From the Original at St. Mary's Isle.) 
To the Worshipful, the Master, Wardens & Permanent 
Brethren of Free and Accepted Masons of the Lodge of 
St. Bernard held at Kirkcudbright. 

99 



100 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

The petition of John ^ul, the Commander of the 
John, of Kirkendal, Humbly Sheweth 

That your Petitioner, for a considerable time by-past, 
haith entertained a strong and sincere Regaird for your 
most noble, Honourable, and Ancient Society of Free 
and Accepted Masons, but Hitherto not meeting with 
reasonable opportunity Do now most Humbly crave the 
benefit of Receiving and Admitting me Into your fra- 
ternity as an Entered apprentice, promising, assuring 
and engaidging to you That I shall on all Rules and 
Orders of your Lodge be most obsequient and observant. 
That I shall in all things Deport, behave, and act an- 
swerable to the Laws and Orders of the Lodge, and in 
everything to which I may be made lyable, promising 
faithful obedience. 

The complyance of your Right Worshipful Wardens 
and the rest of the Brethren will singularly oblidge and 
very much Honour, Right Worshipful, your most humble 
Petitioner and most Humble Servant. 

Jno. Paul. 

I do attest the Petitioner to be a good man and a per- 
son whom I have no doubt will in due time become a 
worthy Brother. 

James Smith. 

This paper is not dated, and as John Paul com- 
manded the John in 1770, it appears that he was 
entered a Mason at Kirkcudbright November 27, 
1770. 

While fitting out The Ranger, it is stated that 
he visited St. John's Lodge No. 1, in Portsmouth, 



AMERICAN MASON 101 

N. H., and while in Paris united with the "Nine 
Sisters," of which Franklin was a member. 

The records of Royal White Hart Lodge during 
the period in which he was in Halifax are lost, but 
the Masons must have met regularly as Masonry 
at this time was at its zenith in Halifax, and if 
those lost records are ever found we believe 
the tradition that John Paul Jones was a visitor of 
this Lodge will be found true, as he visited Masonic 
Lodges wherever he went, and his intimate associ- 
ation with Grand Master Montfort gave him every 
incentive to visit his Lodge. 

John Paul Jones took only the first degree of 
Masonry in Kilwinning Lodge No. 122 in Kirkcud- 
bright, Scotland, and the Fellowcraft and Master 
Degrees he took somewhere in America, but when 
or in what Lodge is not known. But if the lost 
records of Royal White Hart Lodge are ever 
found, we believe that it will be proved that he 
took these degrees in that Lodge. 

HIS EARLY CAREER 

The New International Encyclopedia states in its 
short sketch of John Paul Jones: "A famous naval 
officer in the American Revolution, born in Kirk- 
cudbrightshire, Scotland, July 6, 1747. His name 
originally was John Paul, Jones being subse- 



102 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

quently added for reason^anknown. In his twelfth 
year he was apprenticed to a merchant of White- 
haven, who was actively engaged in the American 
trade, and shortly thereafter sailed for Virginia, 
where his brother was settled as a planter. For a 
time he lived at Fredericksburg with his brother, 
devoting his leisure to the study of nautical af- 
fairs. In 1766, his indentures being cancelled, 
he made a voyage to Jamaica as chief mate on a 
slaver. He soon abandoned this business, how- 
ever, and in 1768 took passage in a brigantine for 
Scotland. The Master and the Mate dying in the 
course of the voyage, Paul assumed command and 
carried the vessel safely into port. For this ser- 
vice the owners appointed him captain and super- 
cargo and sent him on a voyage to the West Indies. 
He continued this trade and accumulated a fortune 
by commercial speculation. In 1773, his brother 
having died childless and intestate, he returned to 
Virginia to settle the affairs of the estate which 
had fallen to him, and for a time gave his atten- 
tion to planting. It was then that he assumed 
the name of Jones, by which he was subsequently 

)known." 

WILLIAM Paul's estate 

In Buell's "Life of Jones," it is said, page 1, that 
John Paul's elder brother William was adopted 



AMERICAN MASON 103 

in 1743 by a relative named William Jones, a well- 
to-do Virginia Planter, while he was on a visit to 
Kirkbean Parish, and that William then took the 
name of Jones. On page six he says: "Old Wil- 
liam Jones died in 1760, and by the terms of his 
will had made John Paul the residuary legatee of 
his brother (William) in case the latter should 
die without issue, provided that John Paul would 
assume, as his brother had done, the patronymic 
of Jones. On his visit to Rappahannock in 1769, 
Captain John Paul legally qualified under provi- 
sions of the will of William Jones by recording his 
assent to its requirements in due form." 

I examined the records of Spotsylvania County, 
Va., to find out whether they would verify or dis- 
prove this theory and found William Paul's will 
in Will Book E., page 97. In his will he states: 
"It is my will and desire that my lots and houses 
in this town be sold and converted into money for 
as much as they will bring, that with all my other 
estate being sold and what of my outstanding debts 
can be collected, I give and bequeath unto my be- 
loved sister, Mary Young, and her two eldest chil- 
dren, in Arbigland in Parish Kirkbean, in the 
Stewartry of Galloway, and their heirs forever. 
And I do hereby empower my executors to sell and 
convey the said lots and houses and make a fee 



104 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

simple therein, and I dc4ippoint my friends, Mr. 
William Templeman and Isaac Hislop, my execu- 
tors, to see this my will executed, confirming this 
to be my last will and testament." 

This sister, Mary Young, afterwards married a 
Mr. William Lowden, who removed to this country 
and was a merchant in Charleston, S. C., as late 
as 1825. Both of the executors renounced, and one 
John Atkinson was appointed administrator and 
gave bond in the sum of five hundred pounds, the 
amount fixed by the court. The will was ad- 
mitted to probate December 16, 1774. Three 
times in the will does the testator declare his name 
to be William Paul, and the name of his brother 
John Paul is not mentioned at all. 

WILLIAM JONES MYTH 

In the August, 1905, number of the Cosmopoli- 
tan, Mr. Lewis says that in the month of April, 
1773, Paul landed on the Rappahannock at the 
foot of the William Jones Plantation, where his 
brother William was then living; that he found 
him on his death bed, and his last words were that 
his name had been William Paul Jones since he 
inherited the plantation from William Jones, and 
that he, John, must take the name of John Paul 
Jones at his death, with the plantation. 



AMERICAN MASON 105 

William Paul did not die in 1773, but in 1774, 
which is proven by the date on his tombstone in 
St. George's Churchyard, Fredericksburg, Virginia, 
which is 1774, and also by the date of the probation 
of his will which is December 16, 1774. That he 
never had the name of William Paul Jones is also 
proven both by his will and tombstone — both wit- 
ness that it was William Paul. 

The records at Spotsylvania Court House show 
that he never inherited any land from William 
Jones. In his will William Jones does not men- 
tion the names of William Paul or John Paul, and 
the only tract of land owned by William Jones, so 
far as the records show, is some 397 acres, which 
were sold during his lifetime. This disposes of 
the myth that Paul Jones ever inherited any prop- 
erty from his brother's estate, or ever owned any 
property in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, and 
that he took the name "Jones" from William Jones 
of Virginia. 

WHY JOHN PAUL CAME TO LIVE IN AMERICA 

One of the theories which attempts to explain 
why John Paul came to America and took the name 
of Jones was to conceal his identity and avoid 
arrest for the murder of the carpenter Maxwell. 
When Paul flogged Maxwell for mutinous conduct, 



106 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

he was in command of the ship John in his sec* 
ond voyage in her. He discharged Maxwell at 
the island of Tobago in May, 1770. Maxwell 
immediately had Paul hailed before the Vice 
Admiralty Court for assault, but the complaint was 
dismissed as frivolous. Later on in England in 
1772, he was charged with the murder of Maxwell, 
and it seems that an indictment, presumably for 
murder or manslaughter, was found against him. 
A complete and perfect contradiction of this 
calumny is found in Brady, pages 9 and 10, and 
Miss Taylor's book, pages 18 and 20, where she 
gives the affidavit of the Vice Admiralty Court, 
who heard the complaint of Maxwell, and the 
master of the ship on which Maxwell died. 

So it seems abundantly proven that, not merely 
Paul did not flee England on this account, but 
that he disdained to fly and met and boldly con- 
fronted the charge. In a letter written by Paul to 
his mother and sisters, speaking of this occurrence, 
dated London, September 4, 1772, he says: "I 
staked my honor, life and fortune for six long 
months on the verdict of an English jury, notwith- 
standing I was sensible of the general prejudice 
which ran against me; but, after all, none of my 
accusers had the courage to confront me." 

All of Jones' biographers, I believe, agree that 



AMERICAN MASON 107 

he came to America in 1773, and most of them 
assert that he came to take over the estate of his 
brother, William Paul. This statement cannot be 
reconciled with the facts that William Paul left 
his entire estate to his sister, Mary Lowden, and 
her two eldest children, that William Paul did 
not die, and his will was not admitted to probate 
until late in the year 1774, at least a year after 
Jones came to America, and that a stranger was 
allowed to administer upon it. 

Jones himself tells the reason why he came to 
America in a letter to William Morris, dated Sep- 
tember 4, 1776, in which he says: "I conclude that 
Mr. Hewes has acquainted you with a very great 
misfortune which befell me some years ago and 
which brought me into North America. I am under 
no concern whatever that this, or any other past cir- 
cumstance in my life, will sink me in your opinion." 

Sherburne, in commenting on this letter, most 
truly says: "The misfortune of which he speaks 
could not have implicated his moral character, or 
he would not have enjoyed the confidence of the 
Honorable Mr. Hewes, to whom, as Jones informed 
Mr. Morris, the particulars were known." Per- 
haps this misfortune to which Jones alludes 
was the death of Maxwell, which was charged 
against him in England as murder. 



108 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

WHY JONES SIDED JpiTH THE COLONIES 

In a letter to Mr. Stuart Mawey, of Tobago, 
dated May 4, 1777, and given in full by Miss 
Taylor in her book, page 25, Jones says: "After 
an unprofitable suspense of twenty months (having 
subsisted on £50 only during that time), when my 
hopes of relief were entirely cut off, and there re- 
mained no possibility of my receiving wherewithal 
to subsist upon from my effects in your island, or 
in England, / at last had recourse to strangers for 
aid and comfort, which was denied me by those 
friends, whom I had entrusted with my all. The 
good offices which are rendered to persons in their 
extreme need ought to make deep impressions on 
grateful minds; in my case, I feel the truth of that 
sentiment, and am bound by gratitude as well as 
honor to follow the fortunes of my benefactors, 
... I wish to disbelieve it, although it seems too 
much of a piece with the unfair advantage which 
to all appearance he took of me, when he left me 
in exile for twenty months, a prey to melancholy 
and want,'' 

This period "of unprofitable suspense," during 
which he eked out an existence for twenty months 
on a bare £50, and which doubtless was gall and 
wormwood to his proud spirit, must have been that 



AMERICAN MASON 109 

"period of obscurity" between 1773 and 1775, 
which was a sealed book to all his biographers save 
Buell, and is the period of which, we believe, he 
spent a large part at the homes of Allen and Willie 
Jones. We are, we think, justified in saying that 
they were the "benefactors" to whom he alluded, 
and that his declarations that he "was bound by 
gratitude as well as honor to follow" their fortunes, 
was intended in part as an explanation of his 
having adopted the cause of the colonies as his 
own. If Jones had acquired that valuable planta- 
tion in Virginia from his brother and William 
Jones, as Buell says he did, could he have com- 
plained that he had been left "in exile for twenty 
months a prey to melancholy and want" with but 
£50 for his subsistence during that period, and 
spoken only of his property in Tobago and Eng- 
land? 

WHY HE TOOK THE NAME OF JONES 

John Paul came to America in 1773, and doubt- 
less visited his brother, William Paul, living in 
Fredericksburg, Virginia. But receiving no as- 
sistance from him, so far as the records show, and 
perhaps finding himself an unwelcome visitor, 
he went to North Carolina, where he met 
Willie Jones, the great Revolutionary patriot and 
statesman, who invited him to his home, "The 



110 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

Grove," in Halifax. Tj^ lonely friendless young 
Scotchman gratefully accepted the gracious invi- 
tation to this home of abounding hospitality, which 
was not only the home of the cultured and refined 
but the home of the homeless. Perhaps for the 
first time he was introduced into the society of the 
cultured and refined. Here he met Willie Jones' 
brother, Allen, both leaders in their day, and wise 
and honored in their generation. Allen Jones was 
an orator and silver tongued. Willie Jones, the 
foremost man of his state, was one of the most re- 
markable men of his time. Here it was that the 
young adventurer, John Paul, was first touched by 
those gentler and purer influences, which changed 
not only his name, but himself, from the rough and 
reckless mariner into the polished man of society, 
who later was companion of kings, and the lion and 
pet of Parisian salons. Here it was he met the 
Hon. Hewes, member of the Marine Committee of 
the first Continental Congress, Chairman of that 
committee in the second congress, and virtually the 
first Secretary of the Navy, who through the influ- 
ence of Willie and Allen Jones, appointed John 
Paul First Lieutenant in the United States Navy. 
It was out of gratitude to his new friends, and espe- 
cially to Mrs. Willie Jones, daughter of Grand 
Master Montfort, to whom he gave a warmhearted 



AMERICAN MASON 111 

affection and devotion amounting to veneration, 
that he took the name of Jones, and finally changed 
it from John Paul Jones to Paul Jones. 

THE NORTH CAROLINA TRADITION 

The North Carolina tradition presents what seems 
to us to be satisfactory proof of this. It is con- 
tained in Appleton's Encyclopaedia, volume 3, page 
462, in a sketch of Allen and Willie Jones and of 
Mary Montfort, wife of Willie Jones: "It is said 
that it was in affectionate admiration of this lady 
(Mrs. Willie Jones) John Paul Jones, whose real 
name was John Paul, added Jones to his name, and 
under it, by recommendation of Willie, offered his 
services to Congress." 

Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States History, 
volume 5, page 189: "Jones came to Virginia in 
1773, inheriting the estate of his brother, who died 
there. Offering his services to Congress, he was 
made first lieutenant in the navy in December, 
1775, when out of gratitude to General Jones, of 
North Carolina, he assumed his name. Before that 
he was John Paul." 

One of the latest works on the life of Jones is 
by Brady, published in 1900. In writing this 
book he had access to all previous works on the 
subject, together with a large number of rare books. 



112 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

pamphlets and manuscripts not available to other 
writers. He adopts the4Worth Carolina tradition 
and gives the only satisfactory explanation of the 
remarkable and magic transformation of the rough 
sailor into the polished gentleman and courtier. 
"He passed long periods at 'The Grove' in Halifax 
County, the residence of Willie, and at 'Mt. Gallant' 
in North Hampton County, the home of Allen. 
While there he was thrown much in the society of 
the wife of Willie Jones, a lady noted and remem- 
bered for her grace of mind and person. The 
Jones brothers were Eton boys, and had com- 
pleted their education by travel and observation 
in Europe. That they should have become so 
attached to the young sailor as to have made 
him their guest for long periods, and cherished 
the highest regard for him subsequently, is an 
evidence of the character and quality of the man. 
Probably for the first time in his life Paul was 
introduced to the society of the refined and culti- 
vated. A new horizon opened before him, and 
breathed another atmosphere. Life for him as- 
sumed a new complexion. Always an interesting 
personality, with new habits of thought, assiduous 
study, coupled with the responsibilities of com- 
mand, he needed but little contact with gentle peo- 
ple and polite society, to add to his character those 



AMERICAN MASON 113 

graces of manner, which are the final crown of the 
gentleman, and which the best contemporaries have 
bourn testimony he did not lack." 

TESTIMONY OF THE JONES FAMILY 

That distinguished and accomplished gentleman, 
the late Colonel Cadwallader Jones, of Rock Hill, 
South Carolina, who died in 1889 at the age of 86 
years, in his genealogical history of the Jones 
Family, page 6, says: "Willie Jones lived at 'The 
Grove,' near Halifax. These old mansions, grand 
in their proportions, were the homes of abounding 
hospitality. In this connection, I may mention that 
when John Paul Jones visited Halifax, then a young 
sailor and stranger, he made the acquaintance of 
those grand old patriots, Allen and Willie Jones. 
He was a young man, but an old tar, with bold, 
frank, sailor bearing, that attracted their attention. 
He became a frequent visitor at their houses, where 
he was always welcome. He soon grew fond of 
them, and as a mark of his esteem and admiration, 
he adopted their name, saying that if he lived he 
would make them proud of it. Thus John Paul be- 
came Paul Jones — it was his fancy. He named his 
ship the Bon Homme Richard in compliment to 
Franklin; he named himself Jones in compliment 
to Allen and Willie Jones. When the first notes of 



114 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

the war sounded he obtained letters from these 
brothers to Joseph He^s, member of Congress 
from North Carolina, and through his influence re- 
ceived his first commission in the navy. I am now 
the oldest living descendent of General Allen Jones. 
I remember my aunt, Mrs. Willie Jones, who sur- 
vived her husband many years, and when a boy 
I heard these facts spoken of in both families." 

The distinguished historian of South Carolina, 
the late General Edward McCrady, of Charleston, 
South Carolina, in a letter dated April, 1900, says: 
"Mrs. McGrady was the granddaughter of General 
William R. Davie, of Revolutionary fame, who 
married the daughter of General Allen Jones, of 
Mt. Gallant, Northampton, N. C. Tradition in her 
branch of the family has been, that it was Allen 
Jones who befriended John Paul, and not his 
brother Willie. ... It was in honor of Allen 
Jones that he adopted the name of Jones as sur- 
name to that of Paul." 

Colonel W. H. S. Burgwyn, in his sketch of 
"The Grove" in Vol. 2, No. 9 of the North Carolina 
Booklet, mentions a letter received from Mrs. Wil- 
liam W. Alston, of Isle of Wight County, Virginia, 
a granddaughter of Willie Jones over eighty years 
of age. She writes: "You ask did John Paul 
Jones change his name in compliment to my grand- 



AMERICAN MASON 115 

father, Willie Jones. I have always heard that he 
did, and there is no reason to doubt the fact. Not 
only have I always heard it, but it was confirmed 
by my cousin Mrs. Hubard, wife of Colonel E. 
Hubard, from Virginia, while in Washington in 
1856* with her husband, who was a member of 
Congress. She there met a nephew of John Paul 
Jones, who sought her out on hearing who she was. 
He told her of hearing his uncle and the family 
speak of the incident often and his great devotion 
to the family, so that in my opinion you can state 
it as an historical fact." 

So that to whatever branch of the Jones family 
we turn, whether to the descendents of Allen or 
Willie, and whether living in North Carolina, or 
South Carolina, or in Virginia, we find the same 
well cherished tradition that Paul took the name of 
Jones out of love for one or the other of these two 
brothers. 

THE EXPLANATION OF HIS SUDDEN RISE FROM 
OBSCURITY 

How did it come that this adventurer, of humble 
origin and poor estate, without apparent friends or 
influence, who had passed his life in the merchant 
service, after a scant two years' residence in this 
country, and that spent in obscurity not pene- 

*This is an evident error and should be 1846. — J. D. 



116 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

trated by any of his numerous biographers except 
Buell, achieved such h^ rank over the heads of 
so many able American seamen eagerly seeking the 
position? It was his friends, Willie and Allen 
Jones, who, bringing all their powerful influence 
to bear on his behalf with their intimate friend, 
Hewes, who was a member of the Committee on 
Marine aff'airs, secured him his commission. In 
the intimate association that grew up between the 
two brothers and Paul during his long stay at "The 
Grove" and "Mount Gallant" it is only reasonable 
to assume that the constant and overshadowing 
theme of discussion between them was the critical 
condition of affairs in the colonies, the battle of 
Lexington, the Mecklenburg Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, the resolves of the Provincial and Conti- 
nental Congress, the embodying of the militia, all 
pointing to one inevitable end — ^war. The leaders 
of the people at that time were active, passing from 
point to point in the State, gathering for counsel 
at the homes of the influential. It is certain that 
many such gatherings and conferences were had 
at "The Grove" and "Mount Gallant"; and, with 
our knowledge of Paul's character, we can well be 
assured that he was a forward and eager partici- 
pant in all of them. In the coming conflict, he fore- 
saw the opportunity his ambitious soul had been 



AMERICAN MASON 117 

craving for — rank, distinction, homage, power, 
fame — and we can see him, with all the vigor of his 
powerful mind, his strong and forceful personality, 
his consummate knowledge of his subject, unfold- 
ing his plan to an attentive audience of an Amer- 
ican navy to be created and commanded by him- 
self, which would destroy the commerce of Eng- 
land, levy heavy tribute upon her seaport cities, 
wrest from her the supremacy of the seas, and 
above all send the name of Paul Jones ringing 
through the civilized world. 

HEWES A FREQUENT VISITOR AT THE GROVE HOUSE 

Here at "The Grove," Hewes was a frequent and 
welcome visitor, and here he met and became ac- 
quainted with Paul Jones. It is certain that early 
in their acquaintance, which was promoted by 
Willie and Allen Jones, Hewes had conceived a 
strong friendship for Paul Jones, and a thorough 
appreciation of his masterly abilities and his pro- 
found knowledge of the science of his calling. He 
was active in bringing him to the notice of leading 
members of the congress. At a meeting of the 
Marine or Naval Committee held June 24, 1775, 
upon the motion of Hewes, Jones was invited to 
appear before the committee and give it such advice 
and information as he might think was useful. 



118 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

General Washington's comment upon this report of 
Jones was: "Mr. Jones ir clearly not only a master 
mariner within the scope of the art of navigation, 
but he also holds a strong and profound sense of 
the political and military weight of the command 
of the sea. His powers of usefulness are great and 
must be constantly kept in view." 

JONES ACKNOWLEDGES HIS INDEBTEDNESS TO 
HEWES 

In a letter to Hewes of May 22, H78, he says: 
"The great individual obligation I owe you makes 
it more than ever my duty to keep you personally 
advised of my movements . . . because you more 
than any other person have labored to place the 
instrument of success in my hands. 

Again, writing Hewes under date of November 
7, 1778, he says: "Of one thing in spite of all, you 
may definitely assure yourself, and that is I will 
not accept any command or enter any arrangement, 
that can in the least bring in question or put out of 
sight the regular rank I hold in the United States 
Navy, for which I now, as always, acknowledge 
my debt more to you than to any other person. 
These extracts fully establish the truth of the 
statement before made that Hewes procured Jones 
his appointment in the navy, which we think is now 



AMERICAN MASON 119 

conceded by every one who has made a study of 
his career. 

APPOINTED FROM NORTH CAROLINA 

In the 21st volume of the Colonial Record of 
North Carolina, page 527, is a letter from Robert 
Burton, of Granville County, then a member of 
Congress, to Governor Samuel Johnston, dated 
January 28, 1789. It is as follows: 

Dear Sir: 

As those who have fought and bled for us in the 
late contest cannot be held in too high esteem, and as 
Chevalier John Paul Jones is among the foremost who 
derived their appointment from this state that deserves 
to be held in remembrance to the latest Ages, I take the 
liberty of offering to the state as a present through 
you, its chief Magistrate, the Bust of that great man 
and good soldier to perpetuate his memory. If you do 
me the honor to accept it, you will please inform me 
by a line. 

To this Governor Johnston replied, February 19, 
1789, that he would gladly accept the bust, on 
behalf of the state, and in a letter of John Paul 
Jones, March 20, 1791, he says that Mr. Burton 
had asked his bust in behalf of the State of North 
Carolina, and that he had ordered Houdon to pre- 
pare and forward it by the first ship from Havre de 
Grace to Philadelphia addressed to Jefferson, and 



120 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

he asked him to give it to the North Carolina dele- 
gates to forward to tl^ Governor of that State. 
The bust was never presented to the state, per- 
haps because of the sickness and death of Jones 
the following year. 

SHORT SKETCH OF HIS NAVAL CAREER 

At the beginning of the American war Jones 
was placed in command of the ship Alfred on 
which he hoisted the American flag, the first ever 
to fly over an American ship. Under this flag he 
went to France; it was there that the French naval 
commander at Brest fired the first salute ever 
given by a foreign nation to the American flag, 
this being arranged by John Paul Jones. As early 
as 1777, Jones was working havoc on English 
merchant ships in the English and Irish channels 
and off" the coast of Scotland. It was from the 
shores of France that Jones set sail on his ship the 
Bon Homme Richard on the memorable cruise 
which resulted in the victory over the English 
man-of-war Serapis, This was very important 
for it gave the Americans the reputation of good 
sea fighters. It was in France he received knight- 
hood and a sword of honor. Many tributes of 
friendship and praise were heaped upon him. In 
the Revolution he had twenty-three battles and en- 



AMERICAN MASON 121 

counters by sea; and made seven descents into 
Britain and her colonies. In his dangerous situ- 
ation in Holland, when he took the Serapis into 
Dutch port he drew the Dutch into war and finally- 
abridged the Revolution. 

Jones fought with daring determination because 
he believed he was right and meant to win for the 
principles he loved. After the Revolution Jones 
lived most of the time in Russia and France. He 
died in Paris in 1792 and was buried there. At 
the time of his death both countries claimed him. 
Although it was mostly by the aid of France that 
our hero fought conspicuously, he fought in the 
service and for the cause of the United States and 
it was fitting that his remains should find a resting 
place within our own boundaries. 

SEARCH FOR HIS BODY IN PARIS 

To seek for the body of Paul Jones in the great 
city of Paris seemingly at the outset was a wild 
undertaking. That General Horace Porter was 
occupied at his own personal expense, six years with 
the quest, is evidence of the difficulties he ex- 
perienced. 

The first step in the search, which began in 
June, 1899, was to go through all writings related 
to Paul Jones. This gave three important data. 



122 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

From the first, he concluded that Jones must have 
been buried in the old abandoned cemetery of St. 
Louis, located in the northeastern section of mod- 
ern Paris. So the site of the burial place of Jones 
having been definitely determined in February, 
1905, General Porter began a careful examination 
of the small cemetery. Because of the information 
that Jones was buried in a leaden coffin, only leaden 
ones were considered. On the thirty-first of March 
the body of Jones was discovered. 

The body had been packed in hay and straw, 
and as the coffin had been filled with alcohol the 
body was well preserved after being buried 113 
years. The preservation was made so that if the 
United States should claim his remains, they might 
be removed easily. 

The identification of the body discovered in the 
leaden casket by General Porter as that of Paul 
Jones is complete in every respect. The facial 
measurements compared with Houdon's life size 
statue of Jones were identical; the linen cap was 
marked with a J looked at in one direction and P 
from another angle; Jones was 5 feet 7 inches in 
height, so was this body; finally Jones had pneu- 
monia in left lung while in Russia in 1789, and 
died of Bright's disease. The autopsy revealed 



AMERICAN MASON 123 

that this body had pneumonia in the left lung and 
died of Blight's disease. 

From Paris the body was taken to Cherbourg; 
and after ceremonies was put on board the United 
States Flagship Brooklyn, bound for the United 
States. On Monday July 24, 1905, the body of 
America's greatest naval hero was taken from the 
ship to the Naval Academy and placed in a tempo- 
rary vault. 

HIS BURIAL AT ANNAPOLIS 

The ceremonies at the Academy were simply 
of a naval character but the final ceremonies were 
national which took place at Annapolis on April 
24, 1906. This date being the anniversary of 
the capture of the English man-of-war Drake 
by the United States ship Ranger in command 
of John Paul Jones. This was celebrated by 
United States and France together. Jones was the 
first naval officer to be buried within the walls of 
the United States Naval Academy. 



THE GROVE HOUSE 

THE Grove House was built in the year 1764, 
by Willie Jones, and was the seat of the Jones 
family in North Carolina. The wood was brought 
from England, and brown sandstone for the steps 
from Scotland. The steps were arranged in a 
semicircle around the porch. 

This beautiful mansion was located in the middle 
of a park of a hundred acres. It lies near the rail- 
road station, while the town is in the opposite di- 
rection. This site of "The Grove" slopes gradu- 
ally to the old stream "Quankey." A pretty pic- 
ture is made by the graceful trees and shrubs grow- 
ing along the stream and in spring there is a great 
wilderness of mountain laurel. The whole land- 
scape is bright with color. 

The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad runs in front 
of the house, which is of the type of architecture 
common in that section of the country at that period. 
At the front door one entered an ample hall con- 
taining a large open fireplace, on either side were 

roomy wings used as chambers, in the rear an im- 

124 



WASHINGTON 125 

mense dining hall containing another great hearth, 
and lighted on the side by six long windows, with a 
very large bay window at one end; this bay window 
was noteworthy in that it took up almost the entire 
side of the building and is said to be the first bay 
window in North Carolina. It overlooked a 
beautiful flower garden and beyond a wide open 
field with a circular race track, one of the most 
noted in the south at that time. 

Through the building were carved mantels. In 
many rooms, there was wainscoting reaching al- 
most to the ceiling, polished bannisters and deli- 
cate finishings and carvings around the doors and 
windows. Beneath the entire structure was a large 
cellar. 

WILLIE JONES AND MARY MONTFORT 

Here at "The Grove" lived two of America's 
really great and noble men and women. In 
the first account we have of Willie Jones' early 
English ancestor, he is the victim of the "grand 
passion," and the hero of an adventure more in 
keeping with mediaeval chivalry than with the cal- 
culating age in which he lived. The tradition is 
that in 1702 Robin Jones came from Wales to 
America as the boatswain of a man-of-war. Land- 
ing at Norfolk he met and loved a maiden, who 
reciprocating his passion, he resolved to make her 



126 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

his bride. Seeking a discharge from service and 
failing to obtain it, he ipsolved to sacrifice fame, 
fortune, and perhaps his life, for the object of his 
affections. As the ship sailed out of port he cast 
himself overboard and reaching the shore in safety 
claimed the reward of his bravery. His coat of 
arms is still preserved in the family, and its em- 
blazonry bearing a ducal impress shows that he 
came of noble blood. His deed was worthy of his 
lineage. 

From this short-lived union — both husband and 
wife dying in twelve months after their union — 
was bom one son who was also called Robin, after 
his father. He was a true scion of the sturdy stock, 
and by some stroke of good fortune found means to 
go to Europe, where he studied law and was ad- 
mitted to the bar. Attracting the notice of and 
winning the esteem of Lord Granville, he returned 
to America as his agent and attorney. He settled 
on the Roanoke, and, taking fortune at its flood, 
soon rose to a position of wealth and distinction. 

He married twice and had four children, two of 
whom, Allen and Willie (pronounced Wily), were 
among the most talented and prominent men of 
their day, leading spirits in all public affairs, fear- 
less and patriotic. They were both educated at 
Eton, England, and completed their education by 



AMERICAN MASON 127 

making a tour of Continental Europe, and to- 
gether they made a noble struggle for the cause of 
American independence. 

The circumstances of Willie Jones' courtship 
and marriage are like those of his grandfather, and 
read more like a page from a love poem than a 
leaf from actual history. On his return to Halifax 
after his graduation from Eton, his guardian, 
Colonel Joseph Montfort, rejoicing over the birth 
of an infant daughter, made a joyous home coming 
for his favorite ward. The fatted calf was killed 
and a feast was made in his honor. In the exuber- 
ance of his spirits, he met his guest with the laugh- 
ing announcement: "Willie, I have a wife for you; 
come and see her," at the same time exhibiting tri- 
umphantly this newly arrived wonder from baby- 
land. The said Willie, after the usual congratula- 
tions, declared his willingness to receive her in 
that capacity when she should have attained ma- 
ture years, and forthwith proceeded, in the same 
facetious strain, to give directions for her educa- 
tion and training. 

Later she actually became Mrs. Willie Jones, the 
mistress of Grove House, where, until the day of 
her death, she dispensed that generous and elegant 
hospitality which made her the cynosure of all eyes 
in her own circle, the beloved benefactress of her 



128 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

humble neighbors, and an angel of mercy to the 
wandering mendicantwlgp sought charity within her 
gates. She combined with a noble and devoted 
patriotism much brilliancy of wit and suavity of 
manners, and notwithstanding she was debarred by 
her sex from wielding a sword in defense of her 
country, the imperfect records of those stirring 
times show that she was animated by true zeal and 
used fearlessly the weapons accorded her in de- 
fense of her struggling countrymen, which is pre- 
served in her famous tilt with Colonel Tarleton, 

PRESENT CONDITION OF THE GROVE HOUSE 

Nothing is now standing of this historic and 
beautiful old colonial mansion except the two chim- 
neys. But this neglect is soon to be remedied, for 
The Elizabeth Ashe Chapter of the Daughters of 
the American Revolution, Halifax, North Carolina, 
of which Miss Ursula M. Daniels is Regent, has 
about $5000 in hand as a beginning towards the 
restoration of this beautiful old mansion and 
the grounds as they were in the days when be- 
fore a brilliant company in the magnificent ball- 
room of "The Grove House" John Paul announced 
to the assemblage that he would henceforth be 
known as John Paul Jones. 



AMERICAN MASON 129 

ELIZABETH MONTFORT ASHE 

This sketch would by no means be complete 
without a short account of Grand Master Mont- 
fort's other celebrated daughter, Elizabeth, who 
married Lieutenant-Colonel John Baptista Ashe, an 
oflScer in the First North Carolina Continental 
Regiment. He was in Washington's Army under 
Colonel Thomas Clark, and took part in the battle 
of Eutaw Springs. He remained in the service 
until the close of the war. 

The home of Colonel and Mrs. Ashe was on the 
outskirts of the town of Halifax, in a southern 
direction. Their dwelling like much of the archi- 
tecture of that day was a story and a half high, 
with dormer windows. In front of it was a beauti- 
ful grove of oak and elm trees. In this home they 
spent the remainder of their lives. 

It is her famous rebuke to Colonel Tarleton's 
sneering remark concerning Colonel William Wash- 
ington that will keep her memory ever green in the 
hearts of Americans. The circumstances are as 
follows : During the stay of General Leslie and the 
British troops in Halifax, several of the officers 
were quartered at the house of Colonel Ashe, and 
Mrs. Ashe was in the habit of playing backgam- 
mon with them. Among them was Tarleton, who 



130 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

often conversed with her, and was especially fond 
of indulging his sarca^^ wit in her presence at the 
expense of her favorite hero. Colonel Washington. 
On one occasion he observed jestingly that he would 
like to have an opportunity of seeing that man, who 
he had understood was so very small. Mrs. Ashe 
replied quickly, "If you had looked behind you, 
Colonel, at the battle of the Cowpens, you would 
have had that pleasure." 

This retort by Mrs. Ashe is equalled by that 
made by her sister, Mrs. Willie Jones, upon an- 
other occasion to Colonel Tarleton. Upon hearing 
this proud Briton speak in contemptuous terms of 
Colonel William Washington, characterizing him 
as a common illiterate fellow scarcely able to write 
his name, Mrs. Jones replied with ready wit: "You 
will admit though. Colonel, that he knows how to 
make his mark." This apt and pointed allusion to 
the sabre cut he had received at the battle of Cow- 
pens from the sword of the gallant American put 
a speedy check to the insolence of the arrogant 
Englishman. 

After the Revolution political honors were 
heaped upon Colonel Ashe without stint. He was 
Speaker of the House of North Carolina Commons, 
elected member of Congress, and finally was elected 
Governor, but died before filling that office. Mrs. 



AMERICAN MASON 131 

Ashe survived her husband nearly ten years. In 
1812 she was thrown from her vehicle, and killed 
almost instantly. 

So passed from earth Elizabeth Montfort Ashe, 
whose beauty and wit charmed the circles in which 
she moved. Yet little save that memory remains. 
When her only son went to seek his fortune in 
another state, the old home with the adjacent lands 
passed into the possession of others, the house was 
demolished, and her body rests in a grave un- 
marked and unknown. 

"So sleeps the pride of former days. 
So glory's thrill is o'er. 
And hearts that once beat high for praise 
Now feel that pulse no more." 



PART III 
THE WASHINGTON FAMILY 



EARLY SETTLEMENT AT WAKEFIELD 

COLONEL JOHN WASHINGTON, GREAT-GRANDFATHER 
OF GEORGE WASHINGTON 

WASHINGTON came of a race of soldiers 
and captains of industry, an active, vigor- 
ous, and short-lived race. Colonel John Wash- 
ington, the great-grandfather of George Washing- 
ton, with his wife, two children, and his brother 
Lawrence, emigrated from South Cave in the East 
Riding of Yorkshire, near the city of Beverly, 
England, in 1657, during the Cromwellian times, 
seeking the New World because they were loyalists. 
They came by way of the West Indies to James- 
town, Virginia, about 1659, and settled on lands 
between the Rappahannock and the Potomac, in 
what is today Westmoreland County, about seventy- 
five miles below our present national capital. He 
acquired much land, as well as fame and title as an 

132 



WASHINGTON 133 

Indian fighter, and was a noted man in his time, 
full of enterprise and energy. 

His wife and both children died soon after 
their arrival in Virginia, and in 1660 he married 
as his second wife, Anne Pope, daughter of a 
neighboring planter, whose father's residence was 
probably adjacent to Wakefield, his residence. By 
this wife he had four children, Lawrence (1661), 
John (1663), Elizabeth (1665), and Anne (1667). 

He was an extensive planter, and was also asso- 
ciated with Nicholas Spencer in bringing colonists 
to Virginia from the mother country. For such 
services he and Spencer received from Lord Cul- 
pepper five thousand acres of land on the Potomac, 
between Epsewasson and Little Hunting Creek, and 
now known as Mount Vernon. 

He was a member of the House of Burgesses in 
1665, was commissioned colonel and proved his 
valor at the time of Bacon's Rebellion, and also in 
putting down the Indian incursions, which were of 
yearly occurrence. Colonel Washington com- 
manded the joint forces of the Maryland and Vir- 
ginia Rangers, and ended for all time the depre- 
dations and massacres of the redmen east of the 
Blue Ridge. The last stand of the Indians in this 
territory was made on what was afterwards known 
as the River Farm of Mount Vernon. 



134 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

Colonel Washington med in 1677, at the age of 
54, after eighteen years of enterprise and industry 
in America, and lies buried at Bridge's Creek, 
near Wakefield. His will was probated in West- 
moreland County, and he left ample provision for 
his family. To his elder son Lawrence he devised 
the homestead, Wakefield, and his share of the five 
thousand acres held in common with Colonel Nicho- 
las Spencer at Mount Vernon. 

He provided further that a tablet inscribed with 
the Ten Commandments should be presented to the 
church at Wakefield in Washington Parish, named 
after him. This shows that Washington, the immi- 
grant, was not only a very wealthy and prominent 
man, but also very pious, and every available 
source of information shows that piety was a strik- 
ing characteristic of his early descendants. 

LAWRENCE WASHINGTON, 
GRANDFATHER OF GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Lawrence Washington, the oldest child of Colo- 
nel John Washington of Wakefield by his second 
wife, Anne Pope, was bom at Wakefield, West- 
moreland County, Virginia, about 1661. He mar- 
ried Mildred, daughter of Colonel Augustine 
Warner, of Gloucester County. He died at his 
residence, Wakefield, in March, 1698, at the age 



AMERICAN MASON 135 

of thirty-seven, and was buried at Bridge's Creek 
in the family vault. 

His children were all bom at Wakefield; John, 
1692; Augustine, father of George Washington, 
1694; and Mildred, 1696. 

Little is known of his career, but his will, pro- 
bated March 30, 1698, in Westmoreland County, 
shows him to have been wealthy. To his eldest 
son, John, he gave the ancestral home, Wakefield; 
to Augustine he left large landed interests up the 
valleys; to his daughter, Mildred, the twenty-five 
hundred acres on Hunting Creek and the Potomac, 
which had been set apart to him in a partition with 
the Spencer heirs. These twenty-five hundred 
acres are the part of the Mount Vernon estate 
which immediately surrounds the mansion house 
and were purchased by Augustine Washington 
from his sister Mildred. 

AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON, 
THE FATHER OF GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Augustine Washington, the father of George 
Washington, was the second child of Lawrence 
Washington and Mildred Warner, born in 1694. 
At the age of twenty-one, April 12, 1715, he mar- 
ried Jane, daughter of Caleb Butler, an eminent 
lawyer and practitioner of Westmoreland County, 



136 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

Virginia. He purchase of his elder and only 
brother, John (then living in Gloucester County), 
the old family mansion, Wakefield, and began 
his married life as proprietor of the ancestral 
home. 

The first wife of Augustine Washington, Jane 
Butler, died and was buried in the family vault at 
Bridge's Creek in 1728, and on March 6, 1730, he 
married as his second wife, Mary Ball, daughter of 
Colonel Joseph Ball, of Lancaster County, Vir- 
ginia, whose residence, "Epping Forest," was situ- 
ated at the mouth of the Rappahannock River. 
Mary Ball, affectionately known as "The Rose of 
Epping Forest," was a splendid specimen of 
womanhood. Tall and stately, with brown hair, 
and large and penetrating brown eyes, clear-cut 
features, and a serene intelligent expression, the 
very prototype of her distinguished son, she was 
a woman of particularly striking appearance, far 
above the ordinary in physical perfection. But 
comely and attractive as she was, these personal 
charms of form and feature sink into insignificance 
when compared with the beauties of her well- 
poised mind, and resolute Christian character. 
Pure of heart, she transmitted to her children the 
sublime lessons of her exemplary life. Possess- 
ing in a remarkable degree the power of imparting 



AMERICAN MASON 137 

to others the strength and virtue of her own char- 
acter, she was by nature equipped to train chil- 
dren in the highest ideals. 

Augustine Washington was well educated, ac- 
tive, a successful business man of large affairs, 
and like his son, George, a true captain of indus- 
try. Not only was he sent to Appleby in England 
for what we would now consider a high school 
education, but he sent there his two eldest sons, 
Augustine and Lawrence, bom of his first marriage, 
and undoubtedly would have sent his third son, 
George, but for his untimely death, April 12, 
1743, when but forty-nine years of age. 

Augustine Washington was a man of importance 
in the community. He owned six plantations on 
the Rappahannock and the Potomac and the coun- 
try back of them. He owned the ferry across the 
Rappahannock at Fredericksburg, and was part 
proprietor and manager of the iron-mine and 
works at Accotink, in which he had a twelfth inter- 
est, also representing the remaining owners, a 
company with headquarters in London. 

He was elected a member of the board of trus- 
tees of the town of Fredericksburg in 1742, and 
so was a proprietor of land in that city as well as 
being resident of what we now know as the Cherry 
Tree Farm across the Rappahannock from the city. 



138 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

There he lived after thirst house which he built 
at Mount Vernon was destroyed by fire. 

Like his grandfather, Colonel John Washington, 
Augustine Washington engaged in transporting emi- 
grants from England to Virginia, and among them 
found a schoolmaster for his son George. Parson 
Weems's legends indicate that he took a keen in- 
terest in the moral training of his son, George, and 
was one of the chief factors in his mental and 
moral development. No doubt the mental charac- 
teristics of the father descended to and were de- 
veloped in the boy. 

After a brief illness, Augustine Washington 
died, leaving a large and valuable landed and 
personal estate, and by his last will amply pro- 
vided for Lawrence and Augustine, sons by his 
first marriage (to Jane Butler), and his second 
wife, Mary Ball and her children, George, Eliza- 
beth, John Augustine, Charles, and Samuel. 

To Lawrence he left the Mount Vernon twenty-five 
hundred acres with the mill he had built thereon, and the 
big brick barn, still standing, together with some land at 
Maddox Creek in Westmoreland County, and his interest 
in several iron works. 

To his daughter Betty, afterwards the wife of Colonel 
Fielding Lewis, he gave two negro children and required 
Lawrence to pay her four hundred pounds sterling in 
cash. 



AMERICAN MASON 139 

To Augustine he gave Wakefield and some negroes, 
three of which Lawrence was to buy from the proceeds 
of the iron works and present to him. 

To John Augustine he left seven hundred acres on 
Maddox Creek in Westmoreland County, and to Charles 
he left seven hundred acres in Prince William County. 

To George he willed the Cherry Tree Farm on the 
Rappahannock opposite Fredericksburg and a share in 
other lands, as well as ten negroes. 

To Samuel he gave seven hundred acres on Chotank 
Creek in Stafford and one half of lands on Deep Run. 

To his wife, Mary Ball, he left the crops "made on 
Bridge's Creek, Chotank and Rappahannock waters" at 
the time of his death, and the priveledge of working the 
"Bridge's Creek quarters" for the term of five years after 
his decease, during which time she "might establish quar- 
ters on Deep Run." 

He required Lawrence and Augustine to pay half of 
his debts and bequeathed to them one half of what was 
owing to him. In a codicil he left to George "one lot 
of land in the town of Fredericksburg." 

Being curious to know where this lot was, the 
old records at Spotsylvania Courthouse were 
searched with the following results: 

Deed Book C, Page 490, Henry Willis' Executors 
conveyed to Augustine Washington, of King George 
county, lots 33 and 34, for which he paid L. 44 cur- 
rency money of Virginia. The deed is dated June 4, 
1741, and recorded Sept. 1, 1741. 

Deed Book D, page 3, John Waller conveyed to 



140 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

Augustine Washington lot^O, for which he paid L 26, 
17s, 6d. Dated March 3, 1741, and recorded July 
7, 1741. 

These are the lots which enabled Augustine 
Washington to be elected one of the trustees of 
Fredericksburg in 1742, just one year before he 
died. In all likelihood he bought these lots to 
be able to be a trustee of Fredericksburg, for the 
law was that the trustees must own property in 
the city of Fredericksburg. These are also the 
lots he gave his son George in his will. 

Lots 33 and 34 are on the corner of Wolfe and 
Maine streets, uptown corner, running through to 
Princess Anne. The present postoffice is on lot 40. 

In Book E, page 866, Lawrence Washington, of Fair- 
fax, conveyed from the Augustine Washington estate, 
King George county, to his brother, George Washing- 
ton, of King George county, lots 33, 34 and 40, now 
the property of George under the will of Augustine 
Washington. These lots are one-half acre each. The 
conveyance of these lots is dated June 17, 1752, and 
recorded July 7, 1752. 

And hereby hangs some interesting history. 
Lawrence Washington came from the Barbadoes in 
May, 1752, to die of consumption July 26, 1752. 
Lawrence evidently wished George to come into 
possession of this property before he died. He had 



AMERICAN MASON 141 

already made him an executor of his own will, and 
in the event of the death of his only living daughter 
George was to be one of the heirs of Lawrence 
Washington's estate. So while practically on his 
death bed, June 17, 1752, he conveyed these lots 
to George: 

Should one be curious to know what George 
Washington did with these lots, it will be found in 

Deed Book E, page 109, that on April 2, 1753, 
George Washington, of King George county, conveyed 
lots 33 and 34 to John Murdock, Andrew Cochrane, 
William Cranford, jr., Allen Dreghorn, Robert Bogle, 
jr., all of Glasgow, in Scotland. Each lot one-half acre. 
In Deed Book E, page 231, Feb. 4, 1755, George 
Washington, of Fairfax county, conveys to John Thorn- 
ton, a cousin, lot 40. This deed is signed in the hand- 
writing of George Washington in the deed book. 

These two last deeds are very important to the 
historian because they fix beyond a doubt the time 
when George Washington ceased to be a citizen 
of King George county and became a citizen of 
Fairfax county. He did so between the years 1753 
and 1755, after he became the owner of Mount 
Vernon. 

In Book E, page 866, we find that Fielding and 
Betty Lewis sold to George Washington, of Fairfax 



142 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

county, lots 111 and 113^ The deed is dated June 1, 
1761. 

In Book G, page 316, Oct. 13, 1769, George and Mar- 
tha Washington, of Fairfax, conveyed to James Mercer 
two lots in Fredericksburg, "extending down the hill" 
to contain one acre, adjoining two lots bought by said 
Mercer from Fielding Lewis. Lots 111 and 113 are on 
the west side between Fauquier and Hawke streets. 

The last land purchased by George Washing- 
ton in Fredericksburg was September 18, 1772, 
and is recorded in 

Deed Book H, page 224, from Michael Robinson and 
Esther, his wife, to George Washington, of Fairfax, lots 
107 and 108, for which he paid £225. These lots were 
previously owned by Fielding Lewis and had been con- 
veyed to Robinson in 1761. 

Lots 107 and 108 are on the comer of Charles 
and Lewis, running through to Prince Edward. 
Lot 107 is the site of the Mary Washington house. 
It fixes an important date, in all probability, when 
Washington's mother came to live in Fredericks- 
burg. It is stated in the Life of George Mason 
that Mary Washington moved to Fredericksburg 
in 1750, but I doubt it. Washington doubtless 
moved his mother to Fredericksburg during the 
days preceding the Revolution to be near her 
daughter at Kenmore, and for protection from law- 
lessness, which he feared might be prevalent. 



I 



AMERICAN MASON 143 

Mrs. Washington enjoyed not only the specific 
provision above mentioned, but had the use of her 
children's estates until they arrived at twenty-one 
years of age. In fact, George Washington said 
after her death, more than forty-six years later, 
that he had never received anything from his 
father's estate during the life of his mother. 

While he was only a boy, he earned his own 
livelihood and for a time his mother was helped 
by him. It probably never occurred to the gen- 
erous Lawrence nor to William Fairfax, the early 
friend and associate of her husband, that the cloud 
of poverty had gathered around the home of Widow 
Washington. Willing hands would have extended 
prompt and liberal response had an intimation 
come of such a condition, but the proud soul of 
Mary Washington could not bend to supplication. 
So she waited the coming of George who tells the 
story of his mother's want only by implication in 
the following letter to his brother Lawrence in 

Williamsburg: 

May 5, 1749. 
Dear Brother: I hope your cough is much mended since 
I saw you last, if so likewise hope you have given over 
the thought of leaving Virginia. 

As there is not an absolute occasion of my coming 
down, hope you will get deeds acknowledged without me; 
my horse is in very poor order to undertake such a jour- 



144 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

ney, and is no likelihood of mending for want of corn 
sufficient to support him; tno' if there be any certainty in 
the Assemblys not rising until the latter end of May, will, 
if I can, be down by that; As my Mother's term of years 
is out at that place, at Bridge's Creek, she designs to 
settle a quarter on that piece at Deep Run, but seems 
backwards of doing it until the Right is made good, for 
fear of accidents. 

It is reported here that Mr. Spotswood intends to put 
down the Ferry that is kept at the Wharf where he now 
lives, and that Major Francis Talliaferro intends to peti- 
tion the Assembly for an act to have it kept from his 
house over against my Mother's Quarter, and right 
through the best of the land; whereas he can have no 
other view in it but for the Coveniences of a small Mill 
he has on the Water side, that will not grind above three 
Months in ye twelve, and the great inconveniency and 
prejudice it will be to us, hope it will not be granted; be- 
sides, I do not see where he can possibly have a landing 
place on his side that will ever be sufficient for a lawful 
landing (by reason of the highness of the Banks) ; I think 
we suffer enough with the Free Ferry, without being 
troubled with such an unjust and iniquitous Petition as 
that, but hope as it is only a flying report he will consider 
better of it and drop his pretensions. I should be glad 
(if it is not too much trouble) to hear from you in the 
meanwhile remain with my love to my Sister, Dear Sir, 
Your affectionate Brother, 

George Washington. 



AMERICAN MASON 145 

Augustine Washington had left his widow in 
comfortable circumstances, for, in addition to 
other legacies, he had provided an income for five 
years from the estate at Wakefield, but this had now 
expired. Poor crops and a plethora of slaves, 
which they could not sell, had sapped the resources 
of the widow until poverty darkened the door of her 
humble home and placed an added responsibility 
and care upon the shoulders of her son George, 
who, in this as in all the other responsibilities life 
placed upon him, more than measured up to the 
requirements. It was to earn bread for himself, 
and help his mother that he roamed among the In- 
dians and surveyed my Lord's lands. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 

GEORGE WASHINGTON was the eldest son 
of Augustine Washington by his second 
marriage, to Mary Ball, and was born at Wake- 
field, February 22, 1732. It is well known that 
he inherited his physical characteristics from his 
mother, together with certain elements in his dis- 
position. He had a hasty temper which he learned 
to control in later years, though never perfectly in 
command of himself at all times, for under great 
provocation he was given to vigorous oaths and 
terrible outbursts of passion to which Jefferson 
alludes, and one of which Mr. Lear describes. Yet 
he realized his faults, kept the faith he pledged 
with his affections, and could and did apologize 
when he exceeded a just anger. Two of the great- 
est qualities of Washington's whole career, integrity 
and enterprise, were probably acquired chiefly 
from his father, for it was he who had been abroad 
for his education, went repeatedly to England on 
business, "adventured" in immigrants, plantations, 
and iron-works, and was the trusted agent of for- 
eign capital. He also donated four hundred acres 

146 



I 



I 




WAKEFIELD 

This Monument Marks the Spot where George Washington was 
Born February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, Va., on 
the Potomac River 40 Miles from Fredericksburg, Va., in 
the "Mansion at Wakefield," as Washington Himself De- 
scribes it. The Print of a Small and Insignificant building 
which Has Had Wide Circulation as the House in which 
Washington was Born is "Imaginary." 



WASHINGTON 147 

of land to found a public school in Westmoreland 
County. He was the Captain of his own vessel as 
well as of the industries of his neighborhood. 

HIS TWO YEARS AT WAKEFIELD, 1732-1734 

George Washington continued to live at Wake- 
field from his birth in 1732 until about the close 
of 1734, when, "owing to sickness in his family," 
his father moved to the highlands of the upper 
Potomac and established his residence at Epse- 
wasson or Hunting Creek Estate, then in Prince 
William, now Fairfax County. Thus begins in the 
latter part of 1734 the occupation by the Washing- 
ton family of what is known today as Mount 
Vernon. 

THE FIVE YEARS AT MOUNT VERNON, 1734-1739 

Here George Washington lived until the house 
was destroyed by fire in 1739, when on account of 
its destruction his father moved to Pine Grove 
Farm, now known as the Cherry Tree Farm, on 
the Rappahannock River, then in King George but 
now Stafford County, opposite Fredericksburg. 

FOUR YEARS AT PINE GROVE FARM, 1739-1743 

His father lived only a few years after moving 
to Pine Grove Farm, dying after a brief illness. 



148 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

April 12, 1743, just af^ George had entered upon 
his eleventh year. His father died in the prime of 
life, having contracted a violent cold from ex- 
posure which, notwithstanding his robust consti- 
tution, resulted in a complication of diseases very- 
similar to the one which caused the death of his 
illustrious son in the latter part of the century. 

FOUR YEARS WITH HIS HALF-BROTHER AUGUSTINE, 

1743-1747 

Immediately after the death of his father, he 
went to live with his half-brother, Augustine, at 
Wakefield. Here he found a very comfortable 
and luxurious home; for Augustine, having mar- 
ried a very wealthy lady, was living in great state, 
had numerous servants, an elegantly furnished 
house and finely stocked farm. Thus favorably 
situated, George continued his studies under an 
excellent teacher, Mr. Williams, for several years, 
during which time he was preparing himself to be 
a surveyor. At the age of seventeen he was recog- 
nized as one of the best in the colony of Virginia. 

HIS ROMANTIC CAREER 

From 1748, his home was with his half-brother, 
Lawrence, at Mount Vernon. The relationship of 
the two was of the warmest nature, in fact the af- 



AMERICAN MASON 149 

fection of Lawrence for his half-brother George 
being almost that of a father. So solicitous was 
Lawrence of his brother's welfare and such was his 
confidence in his judgment that he lost no oppor- 
tunity to advance the interest of George in private 
and public life. He confided to him his most ex- 
clusive private affairs, keeping him under his per- 
sonal observation and tutelage at Mount Vernon 
whenever possible, with the result that at twenty- 
two years of age, George Washington was one of 
the rich men of Virginia, the idol of the Colony, 
and one of the few Americans who was as well and 
as favorably known in England as in America. 
His own personal worth, the love and confidence 
of his brother and friends, the wisdom of his 
mother, an overruling providence, and the acci- 
dents of fortune were so mingled in his career that 
it makes one of the most fascinating romances in 
American history. 

It begins with the bitterest disappointment of 
his life, caused by his mother's objection to his 
entering the British Navy. Lawrence, solicitous of 
his younger brother's future welfare and with an 
earnest desire to place him in a position where his 
manifest abilities would ultimately win promotion, 
secured for George, through the influence and as- 
sistance of his father-in-law (Sir William Fair- 



150 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

fax) an appointment a^jnidshipman in the British 
Navy. This, however, did not meet with the ap- 
proval of George's mother, who positively refused 
to consent to a long separation from her eldest 
boy, neither did she relish the idea of his becom- 
ing a sailor. 

In vain did Lawrence and Sir William Fairfax 
try to change her decision. The following letter 
from her brother, Joseph Ball, decided her not to 
let George enter the British Navy. 

Stratford By Bow, London, 19th May, 1747. 
Dear Sister: I understand that you advise and have 
some thoughts of putting your son George to sea. I think 
he had better be put apprentice to a tinker, for a common 
sailor before the mast has by no means the common lib- 
erty of the subject; for they will press him from a ship 
where he has fifty shillings a month and make him take 
three and twenty, and cut and slash him like a negro, or 
rather like a dog. And as to any considerable preferment 
in the navy, it is not to be expected; there are so many 
always gaping for it here who have interest and he has 
none. And if he should get to be master of a Virginia 
ship (which will be very difficult to do), a planter that 
has three or four hundred acres and three or four slaves, 
if he be industrious, may leave his family in better bread 
than such a master of a ship can, and if the planter can 
get ever so little before hand let him begin to buy goods 
for tobacco and sell them again for tobacco. I never 
knew them men miss while they went in so, but he must 



AMERICAN MASON 151 

never pretend to buy for money and sell for tobacco, I 
never knew any of them but lost more than they got. He 
must not be too hasty to get rich but go on gently with 
patience as things will naturally be. This method with- 
out aiming to be a fine gentleman before his time, will 
carry a man more comfortable and surely through the 
world than going to sea. I pray God keep you and 
yours. My wife and daughter join me in respect to you 
and yours. 

Your loving brother, 

Joseph Ball. 

This ended George's career as a sailor. In the 
meantime he had learned the art of surveying, and 
in the next two years had been commissioned the 
surveyor of Culpepper County, had surveyed many 
thousands of acres for Lord Fairfax in his deal- 
ings with tenants and purchasers; had been Law- 
rence's assistant in matters of the Ohio Company, 
and had succeeded Lawrence as Adjutant-General 
of the Northern Neck with the rank of Major, and 
was receiving as pay one hundred and fifty pounds 
Virginia currency per annum. All this he had ac- 
complished at the age of nineteen. 

His brother Lawrence was active in local affairs, 
a member of the House of Burgesses, and was 
prominent in the Ohio Company, the object of 
which was to establish amicable commercial rela- 
tions with the Indians and open up for settlement 



152 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT . 

the vast country east and south of the Ohio River, 
and west of the Alle§iianies. The Ohio River 
Company was composed of the richest and ablest 
men in the Colony and purposed to secure the rich 
fur trade of the Ohio valley, and open the terri- 
tory to English settlers. They established trading 
posts at regular intervals of fifty or one hundred 
miles, and hoped to form a chain of settlements 
from tidewater on the Potomac to the Ohio, and 
down the banks of that river. 

It was from disputes concerning this territory 
that the French and Indian wars arose, the first 
shot of which was fired by Washington on May 28, 
1754, who with forty men encountered a detach- 
ment of thirty French scouts under M. de Jumon- 
ville, who was killed in the action and the thirty 
French were captured. Thackeray sums up the 
consequences as follows: 

It was strange that in a savage forest of Pennsylvania 
a young Virginia officer should fire a shot and waken up 
a war which was to last for sixty years, which was to 
cover his own country and pass into Europe, to cost 
France her American colonies, to sever ours from us and 
create the great Western Republic, to rage over the Old 
World and distinguish the New; and, of all the myriads 
engaged in the vast contest, to leave the prize of the 
greatest fame to him who struck the first blow. 



AMERICAN MASON 153 

During these fateful years, Lawrence Washing- 
ton was showing symptoms of serious debility. He 
had never fully recovered from the effects of the 
Cartagena Campaign, under the command of Gen- 
eral Wentworth, in the service of Admiral Vernon, 
with whom he went to attack the Spanish city of 
Cartagena, in Colombia, South America, as a 
member of the Virginia infantry. When this ex- 
pedition proved a failure he returned to Virginia 
with the remnant of his brave but unfortunate 
forces, the command of them having devolved 
upon him after the death of Colonel Gooch. 

After his return to Virginia he worked so hard 
that it taxed his enfeebled constitution to the ut- 
most. Under the advice of physicians, he made a 
journey to the Barbadoes in September, 1751, but 
in vain. George Washington accompanied him, 
and contracted there the smallpox, which detracted 
from his physical looks ever afterwards. Law- 
rence reached his home at Mount Vernon in May, 
and July 26, 1752, in the thirty -fourth year of 
his age, he fell a victim to consumption. 

To his brother, George, he left, in case of the 
death of his daughter, all his land in Fairfax 
County including Mount Vernon and the improve- 
ments thereon, and also an interest in other lands, 
reserving a life interest for his wife, and named 



154 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

George Washington as ^e of the executors of his 
will. In a few months Lawrence Washington's 
only living daughter, Sarah, died, and the Mount 
Vernon estate descended to George, subject to the 
widow's use for life, and though but twenty-two 
years of age, George promptly bought the widow's 
rights, after her marriage to George Lee, for an 
annual payment of 12,000 pounds of tobacco. 

This inheritance made him one of the rich men 
of Virginia, while another romance five years later, 
when he was twenty-seven, made him one of the 
richest men in the Colonies. This occurred when 
he married Martha Dandrige Custis, widow of 
Daniel Park Custis, who brought him $100,000 in 
cash and a very large landed estate in Virginia, 
which added to Mount Vernon, George Washing,- 
ton's judicious investments and the lands received 
as a bounty from the French and Indian wars, 
made his large estate. 

MOUNT VERNON 

This home which George Washington inherited, 
Augustine Washington built on the site of his 
former and first residence during the absence of 
and for his son Lawrence while he was away on the 
Carthage campaign. Lawrence Washington named 
his estate Mount Vernon after Admiral Vernon in 



AMERICAN MASON 155 

the spring of 1743, just about the time of his 
father's death, and shortly before he married Anne, 
the eldest daughter of Colonel Fairfax, whose 
plantation, Belvoir, adjoined his own. 

Anne Fairfax, first mistress of Mount Vernon, 
left a mansion for a cottage, for Mount Vernon 
then was an unpretentious dwelling, constituting 
but the middle portion of the structure we now 
know, though its location and its vistas and natu- 
ral beauties were as wonderful then as now. After 
George Washington became owner of the estate, 
he added to the building and completed it as it is 
today. 

In later years Washington extended the limits 
of his original inheritance of twenty-seven hun- 
dred acres to more than eight thousand acres, and 
transformed it into one of the most valuable and 
productive plantations in the Colony. Here we 
find him when he was sixteen years old installed 
as a member of his brother Lawrence's family, 
where, with the exceptions of occasional visits and 
short sojourns with his mother at Pine Grove Farm 
on the Rappahannock, he made his home until the 
end came in 1799, its name inseparably linked with 
his, his fame gathering around and glorifying it 
as the years go by, which will forever consecrate 
it in the hearts of the American people. 



PART IV 

WASHINGTON THE MAN AND PATRIOT 



WASHINGTON THE MAN 

SOME one has happily declared, "Providence 
denied Washington children of his own in 
order that he might be the father of his country." 
Yet in his personal and domestic relations this 
strong man was all tenderness. His letters disclose 
that in youth he fell in love with a certain "Low- 
land Beauty." Later, on a visit at Philadelphia, 
February 4, 1756, he appears again to have be- 
come enamored, this time with one Mary Phillipse. 
His ledger of that date contains an item for 
"treating ladies." 

From youth Washington was fond of all sorts of 
athletic sports and feats of strength and agility. 
At Mount Vernon he rode to hounds two or three 
times a week and spent much time angling and 
fowling, having been an expert shot at ducks on 
the wing. 

156 



WASHINGTON 157 

He was called by Jefferson the best horseman 
of his age and the manager of Rickett's circus 
stated of him: "His seat is so firm, his manage- 
ment so easy and graceful, that I, who am a pro- 
fessor of horsemanship, should go to him and 
learn to ride." 

Horticulture was one of his favorite pursuits and 
the improvement of his grounds and cultivation of 
his farms, according to his own taste, was among 
his principal amusements. 

DAILY LIFE 

At Mount Vernon he rose with the sun, and read 
in his study or wrote letters until breakfast. After 
breakfast he rode on horseback over his farms to 
supervise his overseers and laborers, often taking 
part in their work with his own hands. He then 
worked in his study until 3 p. m., when dinner was 
served. The remainder of the day he devoted to 
recreation with his family and guests. He was 
accustomed to retire at 10 o'clock. 

As Commander-in-Chief and President, as well 
as in his own home, he conformed to the custom of 
the day in having wine upon his table, but he was 
personally temperate, even abstinent, never indulg- 
ing to excess. He was, however, very fond of nuts 
and candy and overindulgence in sweets is said to 



158 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

have made necessary xne set of false teeth, which 
caused the square appearance of the lower part of 
his face, made familiar by his many portraits. 

AT THE PLAY 

From his youth the theatre was one of his favor- 
ite pastimes. He often went to the play three or 
four nights running. In boyhood he frequented 
the theatre at Williamsburg and, while President, 
often attended the performances of the old Amer- 
ican Company at Philadelphia, the east stage box 
having been fitted up expressly for his reception. 
His diaries and ledgers record many purchases of 
theatre tickets for his guests and members of his 
family and numerous entries to this effect, "Dined 
at the Club and afterwards went to the Play." He 
was also accustomed to play cards occasionally, his 
ledger showing losses on one occasion of eight shil- 
lings and on another of five pounds. 

AS A BUSINESS MAN 

Washington was a skilled accountant, and as a 
man was energetic, prudent, and far-sighted. His 
motto was not, "Business is Business," that cynical 
excuse of the weak, but "Labor to Keep Alive in 
Your Breast the Little Spark of Celestial Con- 
science." He meant it and kept it, leading thereby 



AMERICAN MASON 159 

the champions of commercial honor who have given 
modern business its dignity and power, and made 
it what it is today. 

He gained no small repute at his Mount Vernon 
mill, as a manufacturer of flour. There was the 
"Superfine" brand, and the "Common." But even 
the "Common" was so unusual in its purity and 
general excellence that, tradition says. Mount Ver- 
non flour was passed without inspection by customs 
officers at West Indian ports. 

In 1785 General Washington, as the outcome of 
his eff'orts to establish navigation, via the Potomac 
and the Ohio, between the Lakes and Chesapeake 
Bay, was chosen president of the Potomac Com- 
pany. 

It was a vast commercial plan conceived for 
detaching the frontier settler from English influence 
in the Northwest and Spanish influence on the Mis- 
sissippi by welding the West to the East with an 
improved channel of navigation from the sea to 
Lake Erie through Virginia, the present West Vir- 
ginia and Ohio. It would be a long, circuitous 
route, especially for the huge "keel boats" pro- 
pelled against the stream with poles. But "the in- 
genious Mr. Rumsey," popularly known as "Crazy 
Rumsey," had demonstrated to the ever-progressive 
Washington the model of a steamboat, which actu- 



160 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

ally traveled on the Po^nac in the following year. 
Here again Washington was first! At his death he 
not only possessed realty in eastern Virginia, in 
New York State and in Florida, but he still re- 
tained in western Virginia (including the later West 
Virginia), in Kentucky and along the Ohio and its 
tributaries, more than 40,000 acres of good land 
valued at $400,000, or more than $1,000,000 as 
money is valued now. It was the greater part of 
his estate. 

In acquiring it and holding it, however, he had 
become "land poor." During his second term as 
President he felt so keenly his pecuniary embar- 
rassment that he tried to dispose of his western 
lands, and even planned to rent his Mount Vernon 
estate, reserving only the mansion and — for agri- 
cultural diversion — a small farm round about. 
To that end he wrote a realty "ad" of notable "sell- 
ing power." 

"No estate in America," he announced, "is more 
pleasantly situated than this. It lies in a high, 
dry and healthy country three hundred miles by 
water from the sea on one of the finest rivers in the 
world. Its margin is washed by more than ten 
miles of tidewater. It is situated in a latitude be- 
tween the extremes of heat and cold. It is the 
same distance by land or (by) water, with good 



1 



AMERICAN MASON 161 

roads and the best navigation, from the Federal 
City, Alexandria and Georgetown; distant from the 
first twelve, from the second nine, and from the last, 
sixteen miles. The Federal City, in the year 1800, 
will become the seat of the general government of 
the United States. It is increasing fast in build- 
ings and (is) rising into consequence; and will, 
from the advantages given to it by Nature and from 
its proximity to a rich interior country and to the 
Western Settlements, become the Emporium of the 
United States." 

If he had only christened that little town the 
"Imperial Gateway of the Wondrous West," the 
"ad" would have been complete. 



WASHINGTON'S EDUCATION 

THE opportunities offered by the Colonial 
schools in Washington's day were small. He 
had done with schools before his sixteenth birth- 
day and thenceforth depended upon self -culture. 
He studied the three R's, geography, history and 
surveying, in the last of which alone he showed zeal 
and aptitude, the exact and practical having been, 
through life, the basis of his power. In spelling 
and grammar he was inferior. 

Washington was chiefly self-educated. Through 
life he was always learning. In great part his edu- 
cation came from his association with the culti- 
vated men and women of his time, including Lord 
Fairfax, George Mason, Benjamin Franklin, 
Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. He 
was a close observer, having sharp eyes and keen 
wits, and developed unusual skill in recognizing 
natural ability. Hence he also learned much from 
the bookseller, Knox; the blacksmith. Green; the 

farmer, Putnam; and the teamster, Morgan. 

162 



WASHINGTON 163 

BOOK BUYER AND STUDENT 

Books he regarded, according to one of his letters 
to a friend as "the basis upon which other knowl- 
edge is to be built," namely, the kind of knowledge 
of "men and things" with which one can "become 
acquainted by traveling." Hence, through life, he 
was a systematic book buyer and student, and the 
contents of his library indicate his constant advance 
in that self -culture which was essential to the intelli- 
gent discharge of his duties as a farmer, a soldier 
and a statesman. He read for practical information 
on subjects of utility to himself and of value to his 
fellowmen. He husbanded his time for study; 
when he retired to his library no one dared to dis- 
turb him. 

He was especially fond of books on travel, mem- 
oirs, and books of history, but also owned and 
read the classics. His library included the Bible 
and several commentaries upon it, Shakespeare, 
Pope, Translations of the Iliad and Odyssey, Burns, 
Ossian, Don Quixote, "Gulliver's Travels," Swift's 
Works and a translation of Horace. 

Washington's library also contained a number 
of pamphlets, mostly on political and religious 
topics and his sense of their importance is shown 
by the fact that he had many of them bound, often 
carefully arranged according to subjects. 



164 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

VIEWS ON EDUCATION 

Such was his estimate of the potency of education 
that he is said to have been the first man to "con- 
ceive of a republic of free men as superior to a 
monarchy." 

On various occasions he expressed the following 
sentiments : 

"Useful knowledge can have no enemy but the igno- 
rant. It pleases the young, it delights the aged, is an 
ornament in prosperity and a comfort in adversity." 

In a letter to Samuel Chase he wrote: 

"The attention that your assembly gives to the estab- 
lishment of public schools does them honor. To accom- 
plish this ought to be one of our first endeavors. I know 
of no object more interesting." 

In his first address to Congress, January 8, 1790, 
he said: 

"There is nothing better can deserve your patronage 
than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge 
is in every country the great basis of happiness." 

On the receipt of Chapman's "Treatise on Edu- 
cation," Washington wrote him: 

"We believe that the greatest human agency for the 
moral growth of the individual, the prosperity of our 
country, and the preservation of our Government is 
popular education — ^the one good thing of which it is 



AMERICAN MASON 165 

hard to get too much — and that, therefore, the State 
should do her utmost to encourage and advance it, with 
all classes of her citizens, regardless of race or color. 

"My sentiments are perfectly in unison with yours. Sir, 
that the best means of forming a manly, virtuous and 
happy people will be found in the right education of 
youth. Without this foundation every other means in 
my opinion must fail." 

VIEWS ON THE PRESS 

Washington was a careful reader of the news- 
papers and wrote Mathew Carey, the Philadelphia 
publisher: 

"I entertain a high idea of the utility of periodical pub- 
lications insomuch that I could heartily desire copies of 
the magazines, as well as common gazettes, might be 
spread through every city and town and village in Amer- 
ica. I consider such easy vehicles of knowledge more 
happily calculated than any other to preserve the liberty, 
stimulate the industry and meliorate the morals of an 
enlightened and free people." 



WASHINGTON THE CHURCHMAN 

THE key to the character of Washington was re- 
ligious faith and morality. With his mother 
as a youth he read the Bible, the Prayer Book, Dis- 
courses on Common Prayer and Mathew Hale's 
"Contemplations, Moral and Divine." Early in 
life he became a communicant in the Episcopal 
Church and through life was a constant supporter 
of that Institution. He was a vestryman at differ- 
ent times in two parishes, Fairfax and Truro, in 
each of which were four churches. He subscribed 
to pews both at Pohick Church and at Christ 
Church, Alexandria, and used regularly to drive 
from Mount Vernon ten miles to attend the latter 
church, weather permitting. He caused public 
worship to be held while at Camp and when with- 
out a Chaplain, in the French and Indian wars, he 
personally conducted prayers at Fort Necessity and 
Great Meadows and in the Alleghanies. Later he 
read the burial service over the body of General 

Braddock. 

166 



WASHINGTON 167 

While the army lay in the vicinity of Morristown 
he wrote the Presbyterian clergyman in that place 
inquiring if he could be admitted to communion. 
On receiving the reply, "Ours is not the Presby- 
terian table but the Lord's," the General said, "I 
am glad that it is, for I propose to join with you 
on that occasion. Though a member of the Church 
of England, I have no exclusive partialities." 

During the Gethsemane of Valley Forge, Wash- 
ington was observed by a member of the Society of 
Friends, on his knees in the woods, praying for 
his suffering forces. The Quaker afterwards said 
to his wife that he had not believed it was possible 
to be a soldier and a Christian at the same time, 
but having seen Washington on his knees he knew 
that he had been mistaken. 

The following general order on the subject of 
profanity was issued by command of Washington 
to the Continental Army: 

"The foolish and wicked practice of profane swearing, 
a vice heretofore little known in the American Army is 
growing into fashion, and it is hoped that the officers will, 
by example as well as influence, endeavor to check it, 
and that both they and the men will reflect that we can 
have little hope of the blessing of Heaven on our arms if 
we insult it by impiety and folly; added to this, it is a 



168 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

vice so mean and low, witTOut any temptation, that every 
man of sense and character detests and despises it." 

Throughout his life Washington was a Christian 
in faith and practice, habitually devout, charitable, 
humane, liberal to the poor and kind to those who 
were oppressed. His reverence for religion is 
equally to be seen in his example, in his public 
communications, and in his private writings. 

CHARITIES OF WASHINGTON 

Throughout his life Washington was a conspicu- 
ous exemplar of the Masonic virtue of charity. He 
donated the use of several farms to the homeless, 
made provision for orphans and for his aged and 
infirm servants, and for many years contributed 
fifty pounds annually for the instruction of indigent 
children at Alexandria. A number of his relatives 
were the subject of his constant solicitude and 
bounty. During his absence, while serving as 
Commander-in-Chief, he thus addressed the super- 
intendent in charge of his household and estates: 

"Let the hospitality of the house with respect to the 
poor be kept up. Let no one go hungry away. If any of 
this kind of people should be in want of corn, supply 
their necessities, provided it does not encourage them in 
idleness and I have no objection to your giving my money 
in charity to the amount of forty or fifty pounds a year, 



AMERICAN MASON 169 

when you think it is well bestowed. What I meant by 
having no objection is, that it is my desire that it should 
be done." 

During his residence at Philadelphia and else- 
where the Masonic Fraternity was frequently made 
the almoner of his bounty. 



MASONIC SENTIMENTS OF WASHINGTON 

THE appeal of the Grand Master of the Masons 
of Virginia that November 4, the Masonic 
birthday of Washington, be observed as a Masonic 
Holiday, as a worthy tribute to the Father of our 
Country, will inspire Masons of this generation 
to emulate his example and dedicate themselves to 
their country's service, and lend timely interest 
to the Masonic sentiments of Washington as ex- 
pressed in his corerspondence with various 
Masonic bodies. 

The following extracts are taken from the admi- 
rable compilation "Masonic Correspondence of 
Washington," by R. W. Julius F. Sachse, Librarian 
Masonic Temple, Philadelphia. 

Facsimile copies of the originals of these docu- 
ments are reproduced by Brother Sachse from the 
archives of the Library of Congress, or other orig- 
inal sources, so that there can be no question as to 
their authenticity. 

A DESERVING BROTHER 

"Being persuaded that a just application of the prin- 
ciples on which the Masonic Fraternity is founded, must 

170 



1 



WASHINGTON 171 

be promotive of private virtue and public prosperity, I 
shall always be happy to advance the interests of the 
Society, and to be considered by them as a deserving 
brother." 

{Response to address of King David Lodge No. I, New- 
port, Rhode Island, presented August 22, 1790.) 

"My best ambition having ever aimed at the unbiassed 
approbation of my fellow-citizens, it is peculiarly pleas- 
ing to find my conduct so affectionately approved by a 
Fraternity whose association is founded in justice and 
benevolence." 

{Response to Address of St. John^s Lodge No. 2, New- 
bern. North Carolina, presented April 20, 1791.) 

*'Your sentiments, on the establishment and exercise of 
our equal government, are worthy of an association, 
whose principles lead to purity of morals, and are bene- 
ficial in action. 

"The Fabric of our freedom is placed on the enduring 
basis of public virtue, and will, I fondly hope, long 
continue to protect the prosperity of the architects who 
raised it. I shall be happy, on every occasion, to evince 
my regard for the Fraternity." 

{Response to Address of Grand Lodge of South Carolina, 
ancient York Masons, presented May 4, 1791.) 

THE OBJECT OF MASONRY 

"Flattering as it may be to the human mind, and truly 
honorable as it is to receive from our fellow citizens tes- 
timonies of approbation for exertions to promote the 
public welfare, it is not less pleasing to know, that the 



172 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

milder virtues of the heaiUftre highly respected by a So- 
ciety whose liberal principles must be founded in the 
immutable laws of truth and justice. 

"To enlarge the sphere of social happiness is worthy 
the benevolent design of a Masonic institution; and it 
is most fervently to be wished, that the conduct of every 
member of the Fraternity, as well as those publications 
that discover the principles which actuate them, may tend 
to convince mankind that the grand object of Masonry is 
to promote the happiness of the human race." 
{Response to Address of Grand Lodge of Massachusetts 
presented December 27, 1792.) 

"To have been, in any degree, an instrument in the 
hands of Providence, to promote order and union, and 
erect upon a solid foundation the true principles of gov- 
ernment, is only to have shared with many others in a 
labor, the results of which, let us hope, will prove through 
all ages a sanctuary for brothers and a lodge for the 
virtues." 

(Response to Address by the Grand Lodge of Pennsyl- 
vania presented December 28, 1796.) 

SUPPORT THE GOVERNMENT 
"So far as I am acquainted with the principles and 
doctrines of Freemasonry, I conceive it to be founded 
in benevolence and to be exercised only for the good of 
mankind. ... At this important and critical moment, 
when repeated and high indignities have been offered to 
this government, your country and the rights and prop- 
erty of our citizens plundered without a prospect of 
redress, I conceive to be the indispensable duty of every 



AMERICAN MASON 173 

American, let his situation and circumstances in life be 
what they may, to come forward in support of the Gov- 
ernment of his country and to give all the aid in his 
power toward maintaining that independence which we 
have so dearly purchased; and under this impression, I 
did not hesitate to lay aside all personal considerations 
and accept my appointment. 

{Response to Address of the Grand Lodge of Maryland, 
presented November 5, 1798.) 



DOCTOR GEORGE WASHINGTON 

GEORGE WASHINGTON has been called Gen- 
eral Washington, President Washington, and 
the Father of His Country; but probably few Amer- 
icans know that he is also George Washington, 
LL.D. 

The date and circumstances of conferring the de- 
gree, are given in the following letter from the Sec- 
retary to the President of Harvard University: 

Rev. John J. Lanier: 
Dear Sir. 

In reply to your letter of February 1st I beg to state 
that George Washington received an honorary degree of 
Doctor of Laws in 1776. From Quincy's "History of 
Harvard University," Volume 2, page 167, I take the fol- 
lowing: 

"After the evacuation of the town of Boston by the 
British troops, which took place the 17th of March, 
1776, congratulatory addresses from towns and legisla- 
tures were universally presented to General Washington, 
for the signal success which had attended his measures. 
The Corporation and Overseers, in accordance with the 
prevailing spirit and as an 'expression of the prevailing 

174 



WASHINGTON 175 

gratitude of this College for his eminent services in the 
cause of his country and to this society,' conferred on 
him the degree of Doctor of Laws, by the unanimous 
vote of both boards. General Washington was the first 
individual on whom this degree was conferred by Har- 
vard College. The diploma was signed by all the mem- 
bers of the Corporation except John Hancock, who was 
then in Philadelphia, and it was immediately published 
in the newspapers of the period, with an English trans- 
lation." 

Very truly yours, 

F. W. HuMMELL, Secretary. 

Washington was indeed first in everything — the 
first person to be initiated in Fredericksburg Ma- 
sonic Lodge, fired the first shot in the French and 
Indian War, the first person on whom Harvard 
University conferred the Honorary degree of 
Doctor of Laws, first person proposed to be elected 
Grand Master of Masons in Virginia, and first and 
only person nominated and came near being elected 
Grand Master of Masons in America, first Ameri- 
can General and first President of the United 
States — "first in peace, first in war, and first in 
the hearts of his countrymen." 

It was on April 3, 1776, that Harvard conferred 
the degree of Doctor of Laws upon Washington, 
and in doing so broke all precedents. Washing- 



176 WASHINGTON, TOE GREAT 

ton's knowledge of Lann was practically nothing, 
his Greek was less than nothing, and his very 
spelling of his native English was never above 
suspicion, yet he received the highest academic 
honors of the times from an institution where every 
freshman could wrangle in Latin, and every Sopho- 
more deliver an oration in Greek. 

An exaggeration you say! Here are the require- 
ments of entering Harvard in those days: "When 
any scholar is able to understand TuUy or such like 
Latin author extempore, and make and speak true 
Latin in verse and prose . . . and decline per- 
fectly the paradigms of nouns and verbs in the 
Greek tongue, let him then, and not before, be ca- 
pable of admission into the College." 

Fifty-seven years before Washington became an 
honorary Harvard man a boy named Siles, coming 
up for his entrance test at Yale, "was examined in 
Tully's Orations, in which, though he had never con- 
strued before he came to New Haven, yet he com- 
mitted no error — in that or any other book, whether 
Latin, Greek, or Hebrew — except in Virgil, wherein 
he could not tell the 'praeteritum' of 'requiesco'." 

Though Washington possessed none of these 
qualifications, and was not what one would call 
a scholar, nevertheless he was one of the edu- 



AMERICAN MASON 177 

cated men of his day, in all that made education 
most worth while. His library contained the best 
available books, and he could hold his own with 
the greatest minds in America in those days when 
there were giant minds in the land. Washington 
possessed one of the best informed minds this coun- 
try has ever produced, though to form this conclu- 
sion we must ignore the qualifications considered 
by the colleges of that day necessary to an educated 
man. 

The ancient Harvard diploma reads: 

The Corporation of Harvard College in Cambridge, 

New England, to all the Faithful in Christ, to whom 

these Presents shall come, 

Greeting, 

Whereas Academical Degrees were originally instituted 
for this Purpose, That men eminent for Knowledge, Wis- 
dom, and Virtue, who have highly merited of the Republic 
of Letters and of the Common-Wealth, should be re- 
warded with the Honors of these Laurels; there is the 
greatest Propriety in conferring such Honor on that very 
illustrious Gentleman, George Washington, Esq.; the 
accomplished General of the confederated Colonies in 
America, whose Knowledge and patriotic Ardor are mani- 
fest to all; Who, for his distinguished Virtue, both Civil 
and Military, in the first Place, being elected by the 
Suffrages of the Virginians, one of their Delegates, ex- 
erted himself with Fidelity and singular Wisdom in the 
celebrated Congress of America, for the Defence of Lib- 



178 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

erty, when in the utmosfflanger of being forever lost, 
and for the Salvation of his County; and then, at the 
earnest Request of that Grand Council of Patriots, with- 
out Hesitation, left all the Pleasures of his delightful 
Seat in Virginia, and the Affairs of his own Estate, that 
through all the Fatigues and Dangers of a Camp, without 
accepting any Reward, he might deliver New England 
from the unjust and cruel arms of Britain, and defend 
the other Colonies; and who, by the most Signal Smiles 
of Divine Providence on his Military Operations, drove 
the Fleet and Troops of the Enemy with disgraceful Pre- 
cipitation from the Town of Boston, which for Eleven 
Months had been shut up, fortified and defended by a 
Garrison of above Seven Thousand Regulars; So that the 
inhabitants, who suffered a great variety of Hardships 
and Cruelties while under the Power of the Oppressors, ' 
now rejoice in their Deliverance, and the neighboring 
Towns are freed from the Tumult of Arms, and our Uni- 
versity has the agreeable Prospect of being restored to 
its ancient Seat. 

Know ye therefore, that We, the President and Fellows 
of Harvard College in Cambridge, (with the Consent of 
the Honored and Reverend Overseers of our Academy) 
have constituted and created the aforesaid Gentleman, 
George Washington, who merits the highest Honor, 
Doctor of Laws, the Law of Nature and Nations, and the 
Civil Law; and have given and granted unto him at the 
same Time all Rights, Privileges, and Honors to the said 
Degree pertaining. 

In Testimony whereof, We have affixed the Seal of our 
University to these Letters, and subscribed with our Hand 



AMERICAN MASON 179 

writing this Third Day of April in the Year of our Lord 
One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-six. 
Samuel Langdon, 

S. T. D. Praeses. 
Nathaniel Appleton, 

S. T. D. 
Johannes Winthrop, 

Math, et Phil. P. Hoi. LL.D. 
Andreas Eliot, S. T. D. 
Samuel Cooper, S. T. D. 
Johannes Wadsworth, 
Log. et Eth. Pre. Thesaurarius. 

Socii. 

It is strange how fate reverses the fortunes of 
men. That Samuel Langdon, President of Har- 
vard College, whose authority placed Washington 
among "the aristocracy of the learned," was an 
ardent Whig and in so far pleased the Colonists; 
but in 1780 the students fomented a rebellion with- 
in the college walls, and, casting aside their clas- 
sical languages, declared in flat, downright English 
that he was guilty "of impiety, heterodoxy, unfit- 
ness for the office of preacher of the Christian reli- 
gion, and still more for that of President." 

Langdon, who had more learning than horse 
sense, immediately acquiesced in the students' 
wishes and resigned, whereupon the student body 
promptly met and passed resolutions almost ex- 



180 WASHINGTON 

actly reversing their |iifevious declaration. But 
the corporation accepted his resignation, and Lang- 
don retired to a country parish, where he was 
scarcely ever heard of again; while George Wash- 
ington, LL.D., rose from one stepping stone of 
fame to another until all the world knew him. All 
of which proves, of course, that Doctor Washing- 
ton was indeed among those "men eminent for 
knowledge, wisdom and virtue, who have highly 
merited of the Republic of Letters." 



WASHINGTON'S WILL 

WE have shown in the preceding chapters that 
Washington is the new ideal of an educated 
man, the exemplar of a democratic aristocracy 
whose title deeds is work, which consecrates its 
wealth to the making of American citizens. He 
did this not only during his life but by his Will 
still continues to influence the institutions and des- 
tiny of America in as vital a way as the Declara- 
tion of Independence and completes that immortal 
document. It will yet take its place beside, and 
rank in importance with, those three other great 
documents of human liberty, Magna Charta, the 
Declaration of Independence, and the Masonic 
Constitution of 1717 which went further than 
Magna Charta and prepared the way for the 
Declaration of Independence.* We mention four 
ways in which his Will has influenced the institu- 
tions and destiny of America, any one of which 
is sufficient to immortalize any other man. 

♦ See "Masonry and Citizenship," Chapter, The Part Masons 
Played in Making America. 

' 181 



182 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

WASHINGTON FREES HIS 124 SLAVES 

First, he held that slavery was contrary to the 
principles of Masonry, which supplants the "slave 
system of labor" by the "wage system of free con- 
tract," used in building Solomon's temple, in which 
each man shares according to his ability, indus- 
try, and necessity. He staked his life and all that 
he had — and he was one of the richest men in the 
Colonies — for "freedom, equality, and fraternity" ; 
and by the way he freed his 124 slaves showed how 
they could most wisely and humanely be made into 
American citizens. 

Washington and George Mason, together with 
others in the Colonies, had long been trying to 
abolish the slave trade,^ as the Non-Importation 

* Slave Trade. — The importation of negro slaves into the 
American colonies began with the year 1619, when a Dutch 
vessel brought a cargo of slaves into James River. In 1713, 
by the treaty of Utrecht, Great Britain obtained the contract 
for supplying slaves in the Spanish West Indies. This stimu- 
lated the general slave trade. Some colonies desired to pro- 
hibit the importation of slaves, but Great Britain forced it 
upon them. Virginia passed several such acts, but they were 
vetoed. Pennsylvania passed bills prohibiting slave trading 
in 1712, 1714, and 1717, but they were vetoed. Massachusetts 
passed a similar bill in 1774, which was vetoed. It was pro- 
hibited by Rhode Island in 1774, by Connecticut in the same 
year, and by the non-importation covenant of the colonies, 
October 24, 1774. It was forbidden by nearly all the states 
during the Revolution. The slave trade question was an im- 
portant one in the formation of the Constitution. The South- 
ern States, except Virginia — and Maryland demanded it, hence 
it was compromised by allowing Congress to prohibit it after 
1808. The act of March 22, 1794, prohibited the carrying of 



AMERICAN MASON 183 

Resolutions written by Mason and presented by 
Washington in 1769 to the Virginia Assembly, 
pledging the Virginia planters to purchase no slaves 
that should be brought to the country after the 1st 
of November of that year, shows. 

In this connection the earlier attempt of that 
other great Mason, General Oglethorpe, the 
founder of the Colony of Georgia, to abolish slav- 
ery should not be forgotten, for its charter written 
by the Board of Trustees in 1732 "prohibits the 
sale of rum and the use of slaves in the colony." 
So Oglethorpe has the distinction of being the 
founder of the first and only prohibitionist and 
abolitionist colony in America, which permitted no 
slave to be used until the 26th of October, 1749, 
and then only after repeated petitions by the 
colonists of Georgia. 

In a letter to Mr. John F. Mercer, September, 
1786, Washington writes: "I never mean, unless 
some particular circumstance should compel me 

American slaves by American citizens from one foreign country 
to another. That of May 10, 1800, allowed United States war 
ships to seize vessels engaged in such traffic. That of February 
28, 1803, prohibited the introduction of slaves into states which 
had forbidden slavery. In 1808 the importation of slaves into 
the United States was forbidden. The acts of April 20, 1818, 
and March 3, 1819, authorized the President to send cruisers 
to Africa to stop the slave trade. Various projects for renew- 
ing the trade arose in the fifties. It was in reality never 
given up until 1865. No restrictions were placed upon domes- 
tic slave trading. 



184 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

to it, to possess anotheftlave by purchase, it being 
among my first wishes to see some plan adopted 
by which slavery in this country may be abolished 
by law." And eleven years afterwards, in Au- 
gust, 1797, he writes his nephew, Lawrence Lewis: 
"I wish from my soul that the legislature of this 
State could see the policy of a gradual abolition 
of slavery. It might prevent much future mis- 
chief." 

So when the abolition of the slave trade failed to 
be written into the Constitution of the United States 
in 1787,^ Washington made provision in his will for 

' The clause allowing the importation of slaves called forth 
a heated debate in the Convention of 1787 that made the 
Constitution of the United States. George Mason, in opposi- 
tion to Mr. Sherman of Connecticut who was for leaving the 
clause as it stood, in a speech of some length, said: "This 
infernal traffic originated in the avarice of British merchants. 
The British Government constantly checked the attempts of 
Virginia to put a stop to it. The present question concerns 
not the importing States alone, but the whole Union. . . . 
Maryland and Virginia, he said, had already prohibited the 
importation of slaves expressly — North Carolina had done the 
same in substance. All this would be in vain, if South Caro- 
lina and Georgia be at liberty to import. The Western people 
are already calling out for slaves for their new lands; and 
will fill that country with slaves, if they can be got through 
South Carolina and Georgia. Slavery discourages arts and 
manufact^ires. The poor despise labor when performed by 
slaves. They prevent the immigration of whites, Avho really 
enrich and strengthen a country. They produce the most per- 
nicious effect on manners. Every master of slaves is born a 
petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of heaven upon a 
country. As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the 
next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of 
causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by na- 



AMERICAN MASON 185 

freeing and educating his slaves, hoping that his ex- 
ample would be followed by the nation as a whole. 
Had it been done, how many woes Washington fore- 
saw would have been saved the nation ! 

In his Will he pensioned his aged and infirm 
slaves, and made provisions for educating the 
young and teaching them a vocation by which 
they could earn their living, and gave them their 
freedom at the age of twenty-five. Over a half 
a century later the nation did what Washmgton 
tried to induce it to do during his life. In this 
respect the Will of Washington makes the Declara- 
tion of Independence a reality. It began the 
process of educating and making American citi- 
zens out of the negroes of the United States. See 
Washington's Will, the last chapter in this book. 

Washington's endowments for education 

Second, the greatness of Washington is also 

shown by the endowment he left and the reasons 

he gives for founding at Washington, D. C, a great 

University for the training and making of true 

tinnal calamities. He lamented that some of o;ur Eastern 
Sren S from a lust of gain, embarked in thx^ ne^^anous 
traffic He held it essential in every pomt of view, that tne 
g^fral government should have P"-- *». PX°^,«i^rt>";;X 
of alaverv" The year 1800 was fixed in the report as tne 
?ime when the importation of slaves should cease. This was 
changed to 1808. 



186 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

Americans, untainted ^Py the monarchial atmos- 
phere of the continental schools of Europe; by the 
money and stocks he left for establishing and sup- 
porting a free school at Alexandria, Virginia; by 
giving one hundred shares of the James River Canal 
stock for the use and benefit of Liberty Hall 
Academy, in the County of Rockbridge, Virginia, 
which was founded in 1749 as Augusta Academy, 
and was the first concrete expression of that devo- 
tion to learning and religion which characterized 
the settlers of the Valley of Virginia, and became 
the fifth in order of founding of American colleges. 

In the spring of 1776, two months before the 
Declaration of Independence, by unanimous action 
of the Board of Trustees, its name was changed to 
Liberty Hall, and in 1782 was formally incorpo- 
rated as an independent institution, under a self- 
perpetuating Board of Trustees. It was to this 
institution that Washington gave the Virginia State 
Canal bonds, described in his Will. 

The Trustees of the Academy then requested that 
the enlarged and endowed institution be allowed to 
bear his name. To this General Washington con- 
sented in a letter dated June 17, 1798, at which 
time the name of the institution was changed to 
Washington Academy, the only institution so au- 
thorized by the Father of his country. In 1813 by 



AMERICAN MASON 187 

formal act of the legislature its name was changed 
to Washington College. 

After the wreck of the Civil War, the Institution 
was reorganized and developed by the genius of 
Robert E. Lee, who accepted its Presidency in 
1865, fixed its traditions of courtesy, honor, and 
patriotism, hallowed for all time by his spirit, and 
bequeathed to its keeping his sacred dust and his 
incomparable name. Washington, his great kins- 
man, being rich, had endowed the college with his 
money. General Lee, having no money, gave him- 
self to the institution and thus enriched it forever. 
After his death the name of the college was changed 
to Washington and Lee University. 

This gift of Washington still yields an annual in- 
come of $3000 to this institution. This bequest 
soon inspired a similar gift from the Cincinnati 
Society of the Revolution. When the Virginia 
Cincinnati Society disbanded in 1802, it decided 
to follow the example of Washington and bestowed 
all of its funds, amounting to $25,000, upon the 
institution which Washington had endowed. 

How prophetic and far-sighted are these words 
of his Will in which he urges the establishment, at 
Washington, D. C, of a National University: 

"It has always been a source of serious regret 
with me, to see the youth of these United States 



188 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

sent to foreign countries for the purpose of educa- 
tion, often before their minds were formed, or 
before they had imbibed any adequate ideas of the 
happiness of their own ; contracting, too frequently, 
not only habits of dissipation and extravagance, but 
principles unfriendly to republican forms of gov- 
ernment, and to the true and genuine liberties of 
mankind, which, thereafter, are rarely overcome. 
For these reasons, it has been my ardent wish to 
see a plan devised, on a liberal scale, which would 
have a tendency to spread systematic ideas through 
all parts of this rising empire, thereby to do away 
with local attachments and state prejudices, as far 
as the nature of things would, or indeed ought to 
admit, from our national councils . . . and, as a 
matter of infinite importance in my judgment, by 
associating with each other, and forming friend- 
ships in juvenile years, be enabled to free them- 
selves in a proper degree, from those local preju- 
dices and habitual jealousies which have been men- 
tioned, and which, when carried to excess, are 
never failing sources of disquietude to the public 
mind, and pregnant of mischievous consequences 
to this country." 

The Rhodes Scholarships have carried out Wash- 
ington's ideas for the British Empire. But the 
United States in its public schools has carried out 



I 



AMERICAN MASON 189 

Washington's ideas of universal education for 
every child of the nation, which he began by the 
endowment he left for a school in Alexandria, Va. 
Again in the matter of schools has Washington's 
Will completed the Declarations of Independence, 
for without universal education the declarations of 
that immortal document are nothing more than 
the dream of an idealist. 

FATHER OF AMERICAN TRUST COMPANIES 

Third, the way in which he left his estate to be 
administered by his executors has had a most far- 
reaching influence in the business world of Amer- 
ica, for our modem Trust Companies are founded 
upon the principle he so successfully used in the 
execution of his will. 

THE CHAMPION OF ARBITRATION 

Fourth, he used the principle of "arbitration" 
as a better method of settling business disputes 
than courts of law. His will closes with these 
words : 

"My will and direction expressly is, that all dis- 
putes, if unhappily any should arise, shall be de- 
cided by three impartial and intelligent men, known 
for their probity and good understanding; two to 
be chosen by the disputants, each having the choice 



190 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

of one, and the third Dy these two; which three 
men thus chosen shall, unfettered by law or legal 
constructions, declare the sense of the testator's in- 
tentions; and such decision is, to all intents and 
purposes, to be as binding on the parties as if it 
had been given in the supreme court of the United 
States." 

AFTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS THE 
NATION FOLLOWS WASHINGTON'S ADVICE 

The national acceptance of the principle of busi- 
ness arbitration, as advised by Washington more 
than a century ago, seems about to be realized. As 
this book is being completed the Tribunal of Arbi- 
tration founded by the Arbitration Society of 
America, has just opened its first tribunal in New 
York City. The purpose of this Tribunal is set 
forth as follows: 

To organize and operate in New York City and in other 
cities of this country tribunals of arbitration for the 
speedy, inexpensive and just determination of all dis- 
putes and controversies. 

To move for a uniform arbitration law in all the States 
of the Union, and for the insertion of an arbitration 
clause in all trade and industrial contracts. 

If given public support this plan is expected to reduce 
the volume of litigation fully 75 per cent," said a state- 
ment given out by the society. "It will put an end to the 



AMERICAN MASON 191 

seriously congested condition of our court calendars; it 
will insure to the people a speedy administration of jus- 
tice and a vast saving in time, money and worry; it will 
completely eliminate the present 'law's delays,' which, in 
so many cases, constitute a positive denial of justice. 

The Society will begin its work with the establish- 
ment in New York City of a Tribunal of Arbitration 
where all classes of controversies — save criminal and 
divorce matters — ^may be lawfully determined. 

This tribunal will be open alike to the general public 
and to the trades. It will not be a trade court exclusively, 
nor will there be any limitations to the scope of its 
public service. In a word, it will be a people's tribunal, 
to which disputants may submit any form of contro- 
versy for immediate determination by arbitrators se- 
lected by themselves. 

Disputants applying at this tribunal will only have to 
sign an agreement to arbitrate. All arrangements for 
the services of an arbitrator, the time of hearings, sum- 
moning of witnesses, assignment of a special court room, 
etc., will be made by the Society. All that the disputants 
will have to do is to agree to a settlement of their con- 
troversy by one or more arbitrators, selected by them- 
selves as worthy of full confidence. 

Disputants can bring their controversies to this tri- 
bunal, knowing that if the hearing involves a revelation 
of confidential matters, trade secrets and the like, there 
will be no damaging notoriety, no publicity beyond the 
title of the case and the award as they will appear on the 
formal records of the court. 

The operation of this court will be marked by a total 



192 WASHINGTON 

absence of technicalities, ^he procedure will be simple 
and direct. The arbitrator will designate a time for the 
hearings and the disputants will appear before him. 
Each disputant will state his case, produce his witnesses, 
if any, and submit whatever documents are material. 
There will be no rules of evidence in this court to ex- 
clude testimony as "irrelevant, immaterial and incompe- 
tent," and the like. Each disputant will tell his story in 
his own way, and the arbitrator, exercising common sense, 
will know what to consider and what to reject. It will 
be an honest, fair, common sense proceeding throughout 
— the sort of a proceeding that a man with honest dif- 
ferences and honest purpose will desire. 



THE MASONIC IDEAL OF WEALTH 

AS Masons we are taught the meaning of sym- 
bols. The most important symbol for us to 
learn to read is the meaning of the American dol- 
lar, which is the soul of America engraved on gold 
and silver, the symbol of the financial freedom and 
personal liberty of a great and free people, which 
we hold dearer than life itself. 

The dollar which we often carelessly pass from 
hand to hand is a sacred thing, the outward and 
visible sign of the ideals of the great Masons who 
made this great nation, not the means by which the 
few can enslave the many. We can use our dol- 
lars as the miser does — hoard them; we can use our 
dollars for the gratification of our selfish greed, as 
the plutocrat does; we can use our dollars to cor- 
rupt our fellow men, defame and defraud them, 
even murder them. But if we do so we desecrate 
the American dollar and use it to overthrow and 
destroy the American ideal, sealed and consecrated 
by the lifeblood of our fathers. 

On one side of the American dollar is stamped 

"The United States of America." To make the 

193 



194 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

United States of Amerrca we fought our first great 
war. By it thirteen British colonies were made 
into the great American Republic of the United 
States of America. 

On the same side of the dollar is "E Pluribus 
Unum." To maintain this unity of our nation, 
forever one and inseparable, we fought another 
great war, a war without which the ideals of this 
nation would have been forever lost. 

On the other side of the dollar is "In God we 
Trust," which is also one of the landmarks of 
Masonry, the solemn use of which will occur to 
every Mason. The violation of this principle has 
been the cause of all religious wars. 

Above this motto is written another Masonic 
word, "Liberty," for which all righteous wars are 
fought, and for which America has fought all her 
wars. Some may think that the war with Mexico 
was not for this purpose, but the providence of 
God and the Civil War overruled it in the interest 
of the liberty and freedom of the world. 

At the bottom of the dollar is the date of the year 
in which it is coined, which refers to the birth of 
Christ, It tells us that the God who inspired our 
fathers to make such great sacrifices for righteous- 
ness, liberty and brotherhood is the Father-God, 
who is the God of this nation. 



AMERICAN MASON 195 

The dollar which passes through our hands is 
not a common piece of gold or silver or a paper 
rag, but a sacred thing when you understand the 
meaning and history which our fathers stamped 
upon it. For them the American dollar was the 
revelation of the heart and soul of the new nation 
of the earth. It embodied for them, in luminous 
image, the glory and honor of our beloved coun- 
try; its government, its spirit, its institutions; its 
laws, its history; the divine ideas of duty, of dar- 
ing, and heroic self-sacrifice revealed in the lives 
of its God-inspired men, the ideals of righteous- 
ness and human freedom. For they engraved, 
stamped, and dedicated their dollars to God, our 
country, our fellowmen; to liberty, justice and 
brotherhood, which is the ideal of the American 
people. 

It is said that the American loves the dollar; he 
may, he does, he ought to, for it is the greatest 
thing that any nation has circulated around the 
globe. It is not the material thing the American 
loves, but the ideal America has stamped on its 
dollar; for in the hour of danger we sacrifice our 
dollars for our ideals, all of which is summed 
up in the word Liberty, symbolized by the Eagle, 
and by the Statue of Liberty in the harbor of New 
York. There 



196 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

"Across the bay the t^h of freedom burns; 
While stands her ageless figure-, we shall stand 
Eternal guard above the sacred urns 
Of those who perished under God's command. 

Beneath the poppies in the field of France, 
Beneath the star-eyed daisies of our own, 
The heroes caught in clutch of circumstance 
Have reared for us an altar and a throne. 

We shall not prove apostate to their trust. 
We shall not lower now the great ideal; 
We shall not heap dishonor on their dust 
With lies about the "practical" and real — 
While stands her ageless figure, we shall stand 
For human rights in this or any land!" 

Liberty is the ideal of America, a thing of the 
mind and spirit. A people free in mind and spirit, 
who fear not man and bow to God alone, can be 
free. War is the last and final step by which men 
gain their freedom. War will continue in this 
world as long as some men are determined to be 
masters and make others their servants and slaves. 
It is only in liberty, where the master and slave 
relation is abolished and that of brotherhood takes 
its place, that wars will cease — when that for 
which the American dollar stands is realized. 

Let us rapidly trace the history of human liberty 
which began in Europe and culminated in America, 



AMERICAN MASON 197 

Going back to the beginning of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, there was liberty of no kind, as we understand 
that word today, in Europe. The great liberating 
movement began as the aspiration of northern 
Europe for religious liberty — the right of every 
man to worship God according to the dictates of 
his own conscience. It caused the hundred years' 
war in Europe which finally culminated with the 
defeat of the Spanish armada by the English sailors 
in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. This closed the 
wars Europe fought for one hundred years for the 
religious liberty that we enjoy today in this great 
country of ours. 

But still men had no political liberty. They 
continued in slavery "to the divine rights of kings." 
The movement temporarily succeeded in England 
under Oliver Cromwell, but soon went out in the 
darkness of defeat with the return of Charles II. 
But the political liberty which failed in England 
was won and made a reality here in America dur- 
ing the American Revolution. Then it had its 
reflex influence upon Europe, brought on the French 
Revolution, which made France a republic, changed 
the colonial policy of England, and gave constitu- 
tional forms of government to most of the countries 
of Europe. Thus political liberty, the right of the 
people to rule themselves, became a reality. 



198 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

Having gained political liberty, the next war in 
America was for personal liberty. For we must 
remember that at the death of Washington slavery 
was practically all over the world. Washington 
began the movement by freeing his slaves, which 
was finally concluded by Russia freeing her serfs. 
So in one hundred years after the death of Wash- 
ington the principle for which he fought — demo- 
cracy — and the movement he began by freeing his 
slaves and giving them their personal liberty, swept 
around the globe. 

So far men had gained religious, political, per- 
sonal and financial liberty, except in the last strong- 
hold of despotism — Germany, Austria, Turkey — 
who in 1914 attempted to fasten the chains of 
slavery again upon the free people of the world. 
The legions of American soldiers fighting for the 
same principles of liberty that the soldiers of the 
American Revolution, the veterans of the Civil War, 
the Spanish-American War, by their magnificent 
bravery and daring valor united with the soldiers 
of England, France, Italy and all the other allies, 
said: Religious, Political, Personal, and Financial 
Liberty shall not perish from the face of the earth 1 
Mankind shall be free and never again wear the 
shackles of an autocratic despot! 

After each of these great conflicts of mankind for 



AMERICAN MASON 199 

liberty, equality, and fraternity, periods of depres- 
sion and moral and financial upheavals have fol- 
lowed. The worst that ever came in America was 
after the American Revolution. From 1790 to 
1812 was the darkest period that America has ever 
known — religiously, politically, and financially. 
We weathered that storm and we will weather the 
present distress. 

That which is giving many alarm at the present 
time is the fear that the rapid concentration of 
wealth in the hands of the few will eventually create 
here in America an oligarchy of wealth on the one 
hand and a great mass of peasants on the other 
hand, dispossessed and propertyless, and with no 
hope of ever bettering their condition. 

This is what the great French historian, De Toc- 
queville, meant when he said, seventy-five years 
ago, "When America cuts down her forests and fills 
up her prairies, then will come the test of her in- 
stitutions." 

Democracy is possible only where there is 
opportunity for a man to take his place in life ac- 
cording to his merits and ability, and not according 
to the accidents of his birth or the size of his 
father's pocketbook. Up to the present time it has 
been impossible financially to enslave the people of 
America and thus divide them into hard and fast 



200 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

classes because our vas^noccupied lands and free 
access to food and the other material necessities of 
life have not permitted it. But now with these 
owned and controlled by a few, so that the mass of 
the people cannot have free access to them as in 
the past, but in order to use them must pay exces- 
sive rent and interest, marks the beginning of the 
danger prophesied by De Tocqueville, which will 
decide whether America will remain a democracy 
or become a despotic oligarchy of wealth and a 
hierarchy of superstition. 

But we have no fears of this in America as long 
as Masonry flourishes in our land. Our people 
always have and always will worship the god of 
liberty. Our past history of one continual ad- 
vance in liberty is the vis a tergo, the irresistible 
power and force behind which will continue to 
keep us in the straight and narrow path of free- 
dom won by our fathers. 

In the name of liberty and equality we threw 
the British sovereign across the Atlantic Ocean 
and sent the unreconstructed tories after him; we 
abolished titled nobility, the law of primogeniture 
and entail by which mankind had been enslaved 
for untold ages in Europe; we put the law-making 
power in the hands of the people; we have estab- 
lished free schools to banish the ignorance 



AMERICAN MASON 201 

which from the very beginning enslaved the peo- 
ples of the earth; we have freed the chattel slaves 
of half a continent; we spent twenty-five billions of 
dollars to defeat Germany, who attempted to sweep 
this priceless heritage of humanity from the face of 
the earth. 

The American people never have, never can, and 
never will be enslaved by the power of king, 
priest, or gold. America, the land of the free and 
the home of the brave, always will be ruled by the 
people, for the people, and in the interest of the 
people. It will never be ruled by a class in the 
interest of any class for any great length of time. 
Should any fools of the future attempt it, they will 
share the fate of those who have attempted it in the 
past. 

America will solve her problems and overcome 
the dangers of the present and future as she has 
in the past — in the interest of liberty, freedom and 
democracy — and woe to the despot, no matter in 
what form or guise he comes. 

So shall we be worthy sons of America and up- 
hold the ideals of a great and free people, which 
have come to us from Marathon and Salamis, from 
the Netherlands under William the Silent, from the 
British sailors who fired the Spanish Armada, from 
Cromwell's ironsides at Marston Moor, from the 



202 WASHINGTON 

plains of Abraham, ana from Bunker Hill, Sara- 
toga, and Yorktown. As long as we are true to 
these ideals, there will come from them the glad 
smile of their benediction, and a mighty prayer 
will arise in the heart of all the world to keep us 
steadfast and firm in the traditions of religion, lib- 
erty, and democracy engraved on the American dol- 
lar, until the ideals for which it stands shall become 
the heritage of all the peoples of the earth! 



PART V 
WASHINGTON'S MOTHER LODGE 



FREDERICKSBURG LODGE No. 4, A. F. & A. M. 

THIS chapter is by no means a complete his- 
tory of Washington's Mother Lodge, but only 
a brief record of its activities that are of national 
importance, and of general interest to Masons 
everywhere. It is really wonderful at how many 
and vital points its history is linked both with that 
of our Country and the Masonic Craft in America. 

According to the best evidence obtainable, 
and known to be authentic, the Lodge was organ- 
ized on the first day of September, 1752, and was 
styled, "The Lodge at Fredericksburg." This evi- 
dence is obtained from an old "record book, a list 
of members and ledger," bound together, now in 
possession of the Lodge, in which the proceedings 
of the Lodge and its financial operations were kept 
for several years. 

On the first page of the ledger is inscribed: 
203 



204 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

"Ledger for Frederick^urg Lodge, commencing 
September, A. D., 1752, A. M., 5752, ending in 
December A. D., 1764, A. M., 5764." The first 
entry in the record of proceedings is, "list of mem- 
bers' names, 1st September, 5752." No reference 
is made to any former record book, or any previous 
existence of the Lodge, and as no such reference 
is made, and as the record of proceedings and 
Ledger both date from the same time, it is consid- 
ered almost positive proof that the Lodge was or- 
ganized on the first day of September, 1752. 

AUTHORITY FOR ORGANIZING THE LODGE 

From what source the authority was derived for 
opening the Lodge at Fredericksburg is not as sat- 
isfactorily settled as is the time of its organization. 
The records give no authority, nor is any allusion 
made to its allegiance to any Grand Body, Grand 
Master, or Deputy Grand Master. It is very cer- 
tain that it had no Charter from any Grand Lodge 
when it was organized, from the fact that a few 
years after its organization it applied to the Grand 
Lodge of Scotland for a Charter, which was grant- 
ed in 1758, and which continued in force until the 
organization of the Grand Lodge of Virginia. 
From the fact that at the various meetings of the 
Lodge, the Worshipful Master was recorded as 



AMERICAN MASON 205 

Grand Master, some brethren have supposed that 
the Lodge was a self -constituted and independent 
body. This independence is also claimed upon 
the ground that the Fredericksburg Lodge granted 
Charters and constituted other Masonic Bodies. It 
is the opinion of the editor of J;his book, that the 
Masons of Fredericksburg and vicinity, exercising 
the right of Masons from time immemorial, de- 
cided to unite and form a Grand Lodge of their 
own as the Grand Lodge of England was formed 
and the Grand Lodge of Virginia was formed, when 
the several Lodges of Virginia, owing at that time 
allegiance to several Grand Lodges, threw off their 
allegiance to these Grand Lodges and formed the 
Grand Lodge of Virginia. 

FIRST MEETING OF THE LODGE 
The first meeting of the Lodge, according to the 
record, was held on the first day of September, 
1752, with thirteen Masons present, if we omit the 
Master whose name is scratched out. The brother's 
name who was recorded as Master at that meeting 
was so effectually blotted that no one can tell what 
it was. Why the name was erased does not appear, 
but no other name was substituted for Master for 
the occasion. The first entry in the book gives the 
list of officers and members as follows: 



206 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 
, Master. ^ 



Andrew Beaty, Senior Warden. 

Gavin Rodgers, Junior Warden. 

Daniel Campbell, Secretary and Treasurer. 

John Neilson, Robert Duncanson, William 
McWilliams, John Sutherland, John Richards, 
Robert Halkerson, Ralph M. Farlane, Willock 
MacKey, Walter Stewart, James Duncanson. 

EARLY LODGE RECORDS 

It is quite noticeable that the Secretary of 
the Lodge at its organization, and those who suc- 
ceeded him for several years, determined to 
write as little as possible of the transactions 
of the Lodge. This determination was so 
rigidly observed, that at many of the meetings 
nothing is given but the names of the officers, and 
sometimes the names of other members present. 
The first meeting recorded after the organization 
of the Lodge was on the 4th of November. The 
names of the officers and members above mentioned 
are recorded, and those of Charles Lewis and 
George Washington are added. These two breth- 
ren became members of the Lodge that night — 
Charles Lewis by affiliation and George Washington 
by initiation. This, however, is not shown by the 







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■ Copyright, 1908, hy Frcdcyiclcshurg Lodge Xo. J, A. F. d A. M. Usnl hy permission. 

y the Initiation, Passing, and Raising of George Washington 



AMERICAN MASON 207 

record of the proceedings of that night, but by the 
entries in the Ledger of that day as follows: 

Received of Charles Lewis his entrance fee £1 Is. 
6d/ 

Received of George Washington for his en- 
trance, £2 3s. Od. 

HELPS TO EDUCATE A MINISTER 

The Lodge showed great liberality from its or- 
ganization to the year these old records close. In 
several cases persons applying for help received as 
much as twenty-five pounds. One noble instance 
of helping a struggling young man who was prepar- 
ing himself for the Christian ministry, is recorded. 
His name was Hamilton, and he lived probably, at 
or near Dumfries, in Prince William county. In 
reference to this, we find the following entry at a 
meeting held on the 5th of December, 1769: 

"On a motion made by Brother Mercer, seconded 
by Brother Yates, to contribute toward the expenses 
of Brother Hamilton's going to England to re- 
ceive holy orders, it is agreed by the Lodge that the 
sum of forty pounds currency be sent him by the 
Treasurer in bond." 

* Charles Lewis was the brother of Colonel Fielding Lewis 
who married Betty (Elizabeth) Washington, the sister of 
George Washington. 



208 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

After his visit to Ellwand Brother Hamilton re- 
turned home fully equipped for his work, and en- 
tered at once on his ministerial labors, frequently- 
visiting the Lodge and participating in its delibera- 
tions. 

RULES — MASONIC THEN, UNMASONIC NOW 

There were some things done by the Lodge in 
the earlier days of Masonry in this country that 
are not done now, and some of them are so differ- 
ent from the Masonry of today, that they would 
not be allowed. One rule was compulsory attend- 
ance on all regular Lodge meetings under the 
penalty of a fine. The Lodge had such a rule for 
some years after its organization, which applied to 
country as well as to town members. The fine was 
one shilling, which was collected by the Treasurer, 
unless the brother had a reasonable excuse for his 
absence. 

Another rule the Lodge had was imposing a fine 
on every brother who swore an oath (in the Lodge 
or ante-room, we suppose) . This fine was also one 
shilling, and while the Lodge proceedings say noth- 
ing about the amount of revenue derived from this 
source, the ledger shows that many shillings were 
paid in for the violation of this rule, being entered 
up "one oath fine." 



AMERICAN MASON 209 

WHERE THE LODGE WAS HELD 
From the organization of the Lodge, until in the 
year 1756, the meetings of the Lodge were held 
over the Market-house, which then stood on Main 
street, reaching from Market Alley down to the 
second building below. It was a brick structure, 
the under part being kept as a market, and the 
upper part devoted to rooms for officials, and two 
larger rooms which were rented by the Masons, one 
of which was used for the Lodge-room, and the 
other as a ball-room, the latter being often used by 
others than the Masons. The former was the room 
in which Washington took his Masonic degrees. 
In the year 1756, the day of the meeting of the 
Lodge was changed from Saturday, "to the day 
before Spotsylvania County Court," and the place 
was changed from the Market-house to Charles 
Julian's residence. Charles Julian lived in Spot- 
sylvania county, on the road from Fredericksburg 
to Germanna Ford on the Rappahannock river, 
where the county seat was then located and where 
Governor Spottswood lived. The Lodge meetings 
were held at Brother Julian's for six years, when 
on the 22nd of January, 1762, it was "ordered to 
be removed to the Market house, there to remam 
for the future," and so it did remain there from 
1762 to 1813, when the Market-house was torn 



210 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

down. The bricks th^came out of the old Market- 
house, or most of them, were sold to two parties 
who built other houses with them. One of the 
houses built of those bricks was located on the 
ground now occupied by the depot of the Richmond, 
Fredericksburg and Potomac railroad, and was 
torn down when that building was erected. The 
other house was built on the southeast corner of 
Princess Ann and Commerce streets, since torn 
down in order to build the present building which 
stands on that comer. 

After the Market-house was torn down, the Lodge 
was moved to the "Rising Sun Hotel," a wooden 
structure situated on the west side of Main street, 
between Fauquier and Hawk. In that day, and for 
many years afterwards, this was the principal hotel 
in the place, and is where all Southern Senators 
and members of Congress stopped on their way 
to Washington city and on their return home. 
Some of our old inhabitants can remember well 
when the eccentric John Randolph, of Roanoke, 
used to stand on the porch of this building and 
make speeches to the large crowd that would gather 
around. The Lodge remained in this building for 
two years, during which time the present Lodge 
room, on the north-east corner of Princess Ann and 
Hanover streets, was built, and the Lodge was then 




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AMERICAN MASON 211 

moved to that building, and has continued to occupy 
it to the present time. 



FREDERICKSBURG LODGE HOLDS 

THE OLDEST RECORD OF THE ROYAL ARCH DEGREE 

IN THE WORLD 

We sometimes hear brethren, in discussing Ma- 
sonic usage, refer to the fact that in old times the 
Royal Arch Degree was conferred in Master Ma- 
sons' Lodges, and sometimes we read of it in 
Masonic literature. In looking over the records of 
the Lodge we find one instance of the conferring 
of this degree, but tlie brethren opened what they 
called a Royal Arch Lodge. For the novelty of the 
thing we give the proceedings of that meeting in 
the form we find them in the record-book. 

Dec. 22, 1753 — Which night the Lodge being 
assembled, was present: 

Right Worshipful Simon Frazier, G. M., 
" John Nielson, S. W., 
" " Robert Armistead, J. W., 

of Royal Arch Lodge. 

Transactions of the night — 

Daniel Campbell, 

Robert Halkerston, 

Alex. Woodrow, 

Raised to the degree of Royal Arch Masons. 



212 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

Royal Arch Lodge ^eing shutt Entered apren- 

tices Lodge opened present. 

Right Worshipful Dan-1 Campbell, G. M. 

John Hulson, S. W., 

Robert Walkerston, J. W. 

Alex^ Woodrow, Secretary 

Robert Armistead, Treas. pro temp, 

Robert Spotswoodf . . ^ . 
c- 1? • i Visitine Brothers 

oimon r razier [ ° 

John Benger was admitted a member of this 

Lodge. 

CHARTER FROM THE GRAND LODGE OF SCQTLAND 

The Lodge appropriated seven pounds at a meet- 
ing held April 4th, 1757, to obtain a Charter from 
the Grand Lodge of Scotland. The Charter is 
still in existence and in possession of the Lodge. 
It is engrossed on the very best of parchment, and 
although it is one hundred and sixty-five years 
old, and has passed through three long and bloody 
wars, there is not a break or a defacement in it, 
which shows that it has been well cared for. 

CHARTERING NEW LODGES 

Fredericksburg Lodge chartered as many as two 
Lodges before the Grand Lodge of Virginia was 
organized, the Lodge at Falmouth, Virginia (no 












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AMERICAN MASON 213 

longer in existence), and Botetourt Lodge, Glou- 
cester County, Virginia. 

The regularly constituted Lodges then in Virgi- 
nia recognized the right of Fredericksburg Lodge 
to issue these charters, because they recognized both 
of the Lodges thus chartered. Botetourt Lodge 
still holds its original name. At the meeting of the 
delegates of the several Lodges in Virginia, held 
in Williamsburg, on the 13th October, 1778, they 
elected a Grand Master for Virginia. Botetourt 
Lodge in Gloucester county was represented by 
James Maury Fontaine, formerly a member of the 
Fredericksburg Lodge, one of the Charter members 
of Botetourt Lodge, and Christopher Pryor. And 
if it was necessary that the recognition should be 
more complete, we have but to point to the fact 
that Warner Lewis, who was a Charter member 
of the Gloucester Lodge, under the Fredericksburg 
authority, was tendered the position of Grand Mas- 
ter at that same meeting. And further; it is not 
claimed by any one that the Gloucester Lodge had 
any other than the Fredericksburg Charter until it 
was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Virginia, 
after the organization of that Grand Body, just as 
the other Lodges in the State holding charters from 
different authorities were chartered, thus showing 
that the recognition of the Gloucester Lodge, by the 



214 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

fraternity under its fi^ authority was full and 
complete. 

RELICS OF FREDERICKSBURG LODGE 

On the 24th of January, 1879, Brother James T. 
Lowery presented to the Lodge, for Mrs. M. L. 
Boatwright, a lock of General Washington's hair. 
It was taken from his head after his election as 
President of the United States, and has been kept 
in the Hamilton family until 1871, when it was 
given to Mrs. Robb, of King George county, by Mr. 
James Hamilton, of Roxbury, and by her to the late 
Mrs. M. L. Boatwright, of Fredericksburg, who 
presented it to the Lodge. It is a very small lock, 
consisting of about twenty hairs, which show con- 
siderable gray. This relic is framed and is kept 
hanging in tlie Lodge-room, and placed under the 
especial care of the Worshipful Master. 

The Lodge has also a line painting of Washing- 
ton, said to have been executed from life by the 
famous Gilbert Stuart. No one can tell just how 
or when it came into possession of the Lodge, or 
how it was saved from destruction when the Lodge- 
room was sacked during the war. The oldest 
member of the Lodge, as long ago as fifty years, 
could not remember when this painting did not 
hang in the rear of the chair of the Worshipful 



AMERICAN MASON 215 

Master, and the opinion of experts who have ex- 
amined it is that it is either one of the original 
paintings of Stuart, or a replica of the unfinished 
portrait of Washington by Stuart in the Atheneum 
Library in Boston. 

Another valuable relic in possession of the Lodge 
is the Bible upon which Washington was obligated 




Seal of Fredericksburg Lodge 

as a Mason. This is a small volume, seven inches 
wide when closed, and nine inches long and one 
inch and a quarter thick. It is printed in small 
type, probably diamond, with the old-fashioned let- 
ter S, and is strongly bound in leather. It was 
printed in 1668, in Cambridge, by John Field, 
printer to the University. 

The old Seal of the Lodge, which was so highly 
prized because it had been in possession of the 
Lodge so long, was never recovered after the war. 
It is beautifully engraved, having for its principal 
device a shield crested with a castle, also on each 



216 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

of its points, with composes in its centre. Below 
the shield is the motto, "In the Lord is all our trust" 
— the whole surrounded with "Fredericksburgh 
Lodge." As the seal had no number for the Lodge, 
it is supposed by some to be the seal ordered for the 
Lodge at the time the Scotch Charter was applied 
for. 

ORGANIZATION OF THE GRAND LODGE OF VIRGINIA 

The Fredericksburg Lodge took an active part in 
the formation of the Grand Lodge of Virginia. The 
movement originated with the Lodge at Williams- 
burg, which sent out letters inviting the Lodges to 
meet in convention by their delegates on the 6th day 
of May, 1777, "for the purpose of considering the 
state of the fraternity in Virginia, its needs, and to 
canvass the question of placing at the head of the 
Craft a Grand Master." 

The first reason given by the delegates who met 
to organize the Grand Lodge of Virginia was that 
there were five distinct and separate authorities 
claiming jurisdiction over Lodges in Virginia — 
"The Grand Master of England, Scotland, Ireland, 
Pennsylvania, and America (the last at second 
hand)." There were seven Lodges in Virginia at 
the time these delegates met. May, 1777, claiming 
this authority: The Modem and Ancient Grand 




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AMERICAN MASON 217 

Lodges of England, which became united in 1813; 
the Grand Lodges of Scotland, Ireland, and Penn- 
sylvania; the Lodge at Fredericksburg which gave 
the charter to Botetourt Lodge; and Deputy Grand 
Master Harnett appointed by Cabin Point Royal 
Arch Lodge, which also took part in forming the 
Grand Lodge of Virginia, derived its charter April 
13, 1775, from Joseph Montfort, Provincial Grand 
Master of and for America. 

The convention assembled at Williamsburg and 
five Lodges were represented: Norfolk, Port 
Royal, Blandford, Williamsburg, and Cabin Point 
Royal Arch Lodge by delegates, and two Lodges, 
Fredericksburg and Botetourt, by letter. Mat- 
thew Phripp, of Norfolk, was elected chairman, 
and James Kemp, of Port Royal, was made Sec- 
retary. This convention appointed a committee 
to draw up a paper setting forth the reasons why a 
Grand Master should be appointed, which was 
prepared and submitted to an adjourned meeting 
of the convention one week afterwards. 

The report also recommended that another con- 
vention be held on the 23rd of June following, for 
the purpose of electing a Grand Master. That Con- 
vention was held, and James Mercer, of Fredericks- 
burg Lodge, was elected President. In consequence 
of but five Lodges being represented, the convention 



218 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

did not go into the eleffion of Grand Master, but 
recommended that the Lodges solicit from their 
respective Grand Masters the appointment of "some 
worthy Mason resident within this State as Grand 
Master thereof, by which the several authorities of 
the several Masters in England, Scotland, and Ire- 
land, from whom the several Lodges in this State 
hold their Charters will be united in one and the 
same person." The idea then was that this Grand 
Master should resign his authority into the hands 
of the several Lodges which would then meet in 
their sovereign capacity, organize a Grand Lodge 
and elect a Grand Master. And this convention 
thought such a course proper and did recommend 
as a suitable person for this appointment His Ex- 
cellency General George Washington, and further 
recommended that if the appointment was not made 
by the first day of the next June, then the Lodges 
ought to meet and elect a Grand Master and the 
President was authorized to call the convention at 
that time for that purpose. 

The next meeting of the deputies was not held 
until the 13th of October, 1778, when it assembled 
in Williamsburg at the call of James Mercer. 
There were but four Lodges represented, but it was 
decided that a sufficient number was present to pro- 
ceed to business, when it was declared to be the 



AMERICAN MASON 219 

"opinion of this convention that the power and 
authority of Cornelius Harnett, Esq., as Deputy 
Grand Master of America does not now exist." 
Cornelius Harnett was appointed as Deputy Grand 
Master by Grand Master Montfort of the Grand 
Lodge of America. After the death of Grand 
Master Montfort in 1776, Harnett sought to con- 
tinue that body and assume the office of Grand 
Master of Masons in America, but the Grand 
Lodges refused to recognize his authority. 

The Convention then proceeded to the election of 
Grand Master, and Brother Warner Lewis, for- 
merly a member of Fredericksburg Lodge and a 
charter member of and delegate from Botetourt 
Lodge, was nominated, who declining, the honor 
was conferred upon Brother John Blair of Will- 
iamsburg Lodge, who became the first Grand Mas- 
ter of Masons in Virginia. He held the office until 
1784 when James Mercer of Fredericksburg Lodge 
was elected and continued in office for two years. 

At the meeting of the Grand Lodge in 1786 a 
resolution was adopted regulating and designating 
the rank and number of each Lodge then organized 
in Virginia, and the Fredericksburg Lodge was 
rated as the fourth in age under the regular Char- 
ter, and given the number 4. Since that time it has 
been known as Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4. These 



220 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

numbers were given th^^Lodges according to the 
date of the Charters under which they were then 
working and not from the date of the organization 
of the Lodges. This plan gave the Fredericksburg 
Lodge the number 4, whereas if the Lodges had 
ranked from their organization it would have been 
No. 2, as it was the second oldest Lodge in the 
State — Norfolk Lodge being the oldest by eleven 
years. 

PUBLIC SERVICES OF THE LODGE 

Fredericksburg Lodge, No. 4, has taken part in 
various public services, such as laying corner- 
stones, dedicating public buildings, unveiling mon- 
uments, and other like services, as well as making 
pilgrimages to Mount Vernon, the tomb of Wash- 
ington, on several occasions. Only a few of these 
services are briefly described. 

FUNERAL OF WASHINGTON 

The first is the funeral of "our late Brother 
Geo. Washington," on the second Sunday after his 
death. But one member of the Lodge had the sad 
privilege of being at Mount Vernon when he was 
laid to rest — that one was Charles M. Lefevre, who 
happened to be in Alexandria at the time. On the 
second Sabbath morning after Washington's death, 
amidst the tolling of bells, which had commenced 



AMERICAN MASON 221 

at sunrise, the Lodge met in the Lodge-room at 10 
o'clock, preparatory to the solemn services of the 
occasion. Grand Master Benjamin Day, a former 
Master of the Lodge, took the East and made the 
following address to the Lodge: 

"We are now, brethren, assembled to pay the last 
tribute of affection and respect to the eminent vir- 
tues and exemplary conduct that adorned the 
character of our worthy deceased Brother George 
Washington. He was early initiated in this ven- 
erable Lodge, in the mysteries of our ancient and 
honorable profession; and having held it in the 
highest and most just veneration, the fraternal 
attention we now show to his memory is the more 
encumbent upon us. He is gone forever from our 
view, but gone to the realms of celestial bliss, where 
the shafts of malice and detraction cannot pene- 
trate, where all sublunary distinctions cease, and 
merit is rewarded by the scale of unerring justice. 
While the tear of sympathy is excited for a loss so 
generally and deservedly lamented, let us recollect 
that posterity will not less justly appreciate the 
talents and virtues he possessed. As a man he was 
frail, and it would be a compliment to which human 
nature cannot aspire to suppose him free from 
peculiarities or exempt from error. But let those 
who best know him determine the measure to which 



222 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

they extend. In the olBces of private life he was 
most endeared to those who were most in his 
familiarity and intimacy. In the various important 
appointments of public confidence, let not tlie sin 
of ingratitude sully the historic page by denying 
him the incense of public applause. Abler pane- 
gyrists will attend at the sacred altar and do that 
justice to his memory to which his merits entitle 
him; while attendant angels await his immortal 
spirit in the mansions of eternal peace." 

The procession was then formed, and sorrow- 
fully wended its way to the Church, where appro- 
priate services were held, after which the Lodge 
returned to its hall. 

LAFAYETTE MADE A MEMBER OF THE LODGE 

Sunday, November 28th, 1824, was an occasion 
of great interest to the members of Lodge No. 4, 
and to the citizens of Fredericksburg and vicinity 
generally. It was the occasion of the visit and re- 
ception of General LaFayette to the town and to 
the Lodge-room. He had made his grand entrance 
into the town the day before, escorted by hundreds 
of mounted militia with martial music, amid the 
greatest display and wildest enthusiasm on the part 
of the people. On Sunday morning, the General, 
his son, George Washington Lafayette, and his com- 



AMERICAN MASON 223 

panion, Colonel La Vasseur, all Masons, visited the 
Lodge, under an escort of the members. The room 
was filled with Masons, among whom were many 
distinguished visitors, and the ceremonies were 
touching and solemn. Previous to his reception in 
the Lodge-room, he was unanimously elected an 
honorary member of the Lodge, and when his pres- 
ence was announced the members arose to their 
feet, and the Worshipful Master — Col. Wm. F. 
Gray — descending from the East addressed him as 
follows: 

"Brother LaFayette: — In the name of my 
assembled brethren, I bid you welcome to our 
Lodge, welcome to our homes, welcome to our 
hearts. We thank you, my brother, heartily thank 
you, for this visit. We are proud of this oppor- 
tunity of standing on a level with one whose noble 
exertions in the cause of humanity have filled the 
world with his name. While millions of freemen 
are rushing forth with enthusiasm to hail your 
arrival, and exhausting every device of taste and 
liberality to swell the full tide of a nation's grati- 
tude to one of her most illustrious benefactors, we 
as Masons desire to greet you by the endearing ties 
of our profession, and renew to you in the sincerity 
of our hearts those mystic and sacred pledges of 



224 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

Fidelity and BROTHERuy Love which are due to 
your exalted virtues. 

"On this occasion, my Brother, it cannot be un- 
interesting to you, as the early friend and com- 
panion-in-arms of our beloved Washington, to know 
that this Lodge boasts the honor of being his 
parent Lodge. Our records assure us that on the 
4th day of November, A. L. 5752, the light of 
Masonry here first burst upon his sight, and that 
within the pale of this Lodge, he subsequently 
sought and obtained further illumination. Here he 
first studied those liberal, tolerant and benevolent 
principles of our order, which have since, under 
Heaven, been through him and his worthy com- 
patriots, so happily diffused through the free insti- 
tutions of our Government. 

"We feel a peculiar gratification, my honored 
Brother, in beholding you standing within the body 
of the Lodge where he has so often stood and 
assisted in our labors of love. We would gladly 
avail ourselves of the occasion to testify to you our 
respect and fraternal regard by receiving you into 
our household. I have the pleasure of informing 
you that this Lodge has today elected you an 
honorary member, and I am instructed to express 
to you our united, earnest request, that you will, 
before you leave us, inscribe your name upon the 



AMERICAN MASON 225 

list of members. It already bears the names of 
Washington, Mercer, Woodford, Weedon, and 
many others distinguished for their virtues and 
whose names live in our country's history. It will 
be a lasting source of honorable pride to know that 
it also bears the name of LaFayette. Future mem- 
bers will peruse the proceedings of this day with 
devout interest, and will delight to trace the charac- 
ters inscribed by your hand. 

"My beloved Brother, you will soon leave us, we 
may never more meet, but the anniversary of your 
advent among us will hereafter form a bright day 
in our calendar, and yearly, as we assemble to 
celebrate it, your good deeds will be freshly re- 
membered. We would fain indulge the hope that 
the evening of your days may be spent in this 
happy country, peacefully sheltered under the vine 
and fig tree which your youthful hands assisted in 
planting and your valor in defending. But, if that 
may not be, where'er you go, in whatsoever land 
you may bide the remainder of your time in this 
tabernacle of clay, our earnest and unceasing 
prayer shall be, that the blessing of heaven may be 
round you and over you, and when it shall please 
the Omniscient to call you hence, may you be re- 
ceived into the Grand Lodge above among the 
spirits of the just made perfect." 



226 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

General LaFayette, ^Tth great emotion, replied 
as follows: 

"My dear Sir, and you my Brother, — The pleas- 
ure I ever feel in our fraternal meetings cannot but 
be enhanced on this occasion by the consideration 
that in this city the first lessons of childhood, in this 
Lodge, the first lessons of Masonry were conferred 
upon the man who was first in all our hearts. In 
Masonry he was our brother, in matters of State, 
he was our father. I shall be happy, sir, to see my 
name united with those respected names most dear 
to my heart, that you have just menioned. And I 
beg you all, my brethren, to accept my affectionate 
thanks for the favor you have conferred upon me, 
and which you, sir, have been pleased so kindly to 
announce." 

The General then walked to the Secretary's desk 
and signed his name to the roll of membership in a 
large, bold hand. A procession was then formed 
and moved to the Episcopal Church, where an ex- 
cellent sermon was delivered by Rev. Edward C. 
McGuire, to a densely packed house, after which 
the brethren returned to the Lodge-room. 



AMERICAN MASON 227 

MONUMENT TO MARY, THE MOTHER OF 
WASHINGTON 

In May, 1833, the Lodge, assisted by Lodge No. 
63, laid the corner-stone of the monument to Mary, 
the mother of Washington, on the western outskirts 
of the town of Fredericksburg. Brother Samuel 
Howison was Master of the Lodge and presided. 
Gen. Andrew Jackson, President of the United 
States, and Past Grand Master of Tennessee, was 
present by invitation, to deliver the address. 
George Washington Basset, a relative of Gen. 
Washington, was Master of Ceremonies, and de- 
livered the address of welcome to the President 
and his party. The President's oration was able 
and eloquent and was highly appreciated by the 
immense concourse of people who had gathered 
from all quarters to witness the proceedings. In 
his reference to Gen. Washington, the President 
says: 

"Many years have passed over me, but they have 
increased instead of diminishing my reverence for 
his character and my confidence in his principles. 
Most of you, my friends, must speak of him from 
report. It is to me a source of great gratification 
that I can speak of him from personal knowledge 
and observation, so I am unwilling that this oppor- 



228 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

tunity should pass away without bearing my testi- 
mony to his worth and services. I do this in justice 
to my own feelings. His fame needs no feeble 
aid from me. The loving witness of his public 
and private life will soon follow him to the tomb. 
Already a second and third generation are upon 
the theatre of action, and the men and the events 
of the Revolution, and the interesting period be- 
tween it and the firm establishment of the present 
Constitution, must ere long live only on the page 
of history. I witnessed the public conduct and the 
private virtues of Washington, and I saw and par- 
ticipated in the confidence which he inspired when 
probably the stability of our institutions depended 
upon his personal influence." 

The corner-stone was then laid with the solemn 
ceremonies of the Masonic order, and accompanied 
by the President, the Lodge returned to their hall. 

YORKTOWN MONUMENT 

The Lodge received an invitation from the Grand 
Lodge of Virginia to visit Yorktown, Va., on the 
17th of October, 1881, to take part in the exercises 
of laying the comer-stone of the monument to be 
erected by the United States Government to mark 
the place where Lord Cornwallis surrendered the 



AMERICAN MASON 229 

British forces to Washington one hundred years 
prior to that day. Quite a number of the members 
of the Lodge were present. The Lodge instructed 
the Secretary to take a fly-leaf from the old Bible 
on which George Washington was made a Mason, 
and enter thereon Washington's Masonic connection 
with the Lodge, and forward it to the Grand Secre- 
tary to be deposited in the box to be placed in the 
comer-stone. The leaf, with the matter recorded 
on it, together with a roll of the membership of the 
Lodge, was forwarded and deposited as directed. 

DEDICATION OF WASHINGTON MONUMENT 

The Washington Monument in the city of Wash- 
ington having been completed, the Grand Lodge 
of the District of Columbia was called upon to 
perform the services of dedicating it on the 21st 
Say of February, 1885. No. 4, as Washington s 
mother Lodge, received a special invitation to be 
present and participate in the exercises On the 
morning of that day the Lodge assembled-Wor. 
A B. Botts, Worshipful Master— and proceeded to 
Washington city. On their arrival in the city they 
were conducted to the Masonic Temple, where they 
met with a warm reception by the fraternity of the 
District, and being placed in a position of honor 
in the line, marched to the monument, where 



230 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

the services were conducted by Most Worshipful 
M. M. Parker, Grand Master of the District of 
Columbia. By special request the Lodge carried 
with it the Bible upon which Washington was obli- 
gated as a Mason, and as the Grand Master held it 
up and called attention to its history, all eyes were 
turned to it, as it was regarded the most interesting 
relic exhibited on that occasion. A handsome ban- 
quet was given to the fraternity that evening by the 
Grand Lodge of the District, at which No. 4 re- 
ceived marked distinction because of its ancient 
and honorable history. 

LOSSES DURING THE CIVIL WAR 

Fredericksburg Lodge has survived five wars — 
the war of the Revolution, the war of 1812, the 
war "between the States," Spanish- American War, 
and the World War. The first war drew heavily 
upon the membership of the Lodge for soldiers to 
fill positions from the Commander-in-Chief to the 
private in the ranks, and thus her membership at 
home was so small during those trying times, that 
few meetings were held. The war of 1812 was 
not so exacting; although many of her members 
became distinguished in that contest, yet the meet- 
ings of the Lodge were held with tolerable regu- 
larity. 



AMERICAN MASON 231 

It was in the war "between the States" that the 
Lodge suffered most in membership and property. 
The only things saved at all belonging to the Lodge 
were the records of the proceedings from the 
organization of the Lodge, in 1752, to the 6th of 
December, 1771; the old ledger attached to these 
old records, the old Bible upon which Washington 
was obligated as a Mason, and the old Scotch and 
Virginia Charters. Fortunately for the Lodge and 
the Masonic fraternity, these relics were in the 
possession of Worthy Brother William Ware, in 
Danville, Va., and escaped the fate of the other 
relics and property of the Lodge. Worthy Brother 
Ware was enabled to preserve these valuable relics 
from the fact that he was Cashier of the Virginia 
Bank at Fredericksburg, in whose vault they were 
placed for safe keeping; and when he refugeed to 
Danville, knowing their historical value and how 
highly they were esteemed by the Lodge, he took 
them with him, and brought them back safely when 
he returned after the war was over. By this 
thoughtfulness of Worthy Brother Ware, we have 
now the records and the proof of the initiation, 
passing, and raising of George Washington in the 
Fredericksburg Lodge. 



232 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

GRAND MASTERS 

Fredericksburg Lodges have furnished eight 
Grand Masters of the Grand Lodge of Virginia, 
seven being from No. 4, and one from No. 63. 

James Mercer was elected on the 4th day of 
November, 1784, and served until the 27th day of 
October, 1786. He was bom and raised in Fred- 
ericksburg, and was a lawyer by profession. He 
was a man of decided ability, and a great friend to 
Washington. He presided over the second conven- 
tion held preliminary to organizing the Grand 
Lodge of Virginia, and recommended Washington 
as the proper person upon whom all the Grand 
Lodges could unite for appointment of Grand Mas- 
ter for Virginia, that all Masonic authority in the 
State might centre in one officer, there being at that 
time many Grand Bodies and Grand Masters claim- 
ing authority. He was President of the first Court 
of Appeals for Virginia, which position he filled 
with distinguished ability. 

Robert Brooke was elected Grand Master on 
the 23rd of November, 1795, and held the office un- 
til the 27th of November, 1797. He was a lawyer- 
farmer, and lived at St. Julian, in Spotsylvania 
county, about eight miles below Fredericksburg. 
He was elected Governor of Virginia in 1794, and 



AMERICAN MASON 233 

served with distinction in that capacity for two 
years, his term expiring in 1796. 

Benjamin Day was elected Grand Master on the 
27th of November, 1797, immediately succeeding 
Most Wor. Robert Brooke, and was twice re-elected, 
serving for three years and until the 8th of Decem- 
ber, 1800. Some few of our citizens remember 
Major Day, "with his ruffled shirt, knee-breeches, 
and powdered cue," but remember nothing of his 
business and manner of life; therefore, in the 
absence of memory of him or written biography, 
we give the inscription found on his tombstone in 
the Masonic burying-ground in Fredericksburg, 
placed there by neighbors who knew him well: 
"In memory of Benjamin Day, born in London, 
24th September, 1752, and died in Fredericksburg, 
16th of February, 1821. He removed to this coun- 
try early in life, and took an active part in the 
Revolution, having served with credit as an officer 
of the American army. A great portion of his time 
since has been devoted to the public in discharging 
the duties of magistrate, in which he was uncom- 
monly zealous and useful. The Female Charity 
School of Fredericksburg is chiefly indebted to him 
for its origin in 1795, and for its prosperity to his 
unremitted attention in the principal management 



234 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

of its concerns, over wklbh he presided until the 
time of his death." 

Oscar M. Crutchfield was elected Grand Mas- 
ter on the 14th of December, 1841, and served two 
years, until the 12th of December, 1843. Most 
Worthy Brother Crutchfield was bom at Spring 
Forest, in Spotsylvania county, Va., on the 16th of 
January, 1800, and spent the whole of his useful 
life in that county. For many years he was the pre- 
siding magistrate and presided over the county 
court. For nearly a quarter of a century he repre- 
sented his county in the Legislature, and was for 
ten years Speaker of the House. His home being in 
the western part of the county and his Lodge lo- 
cated in the eastern part, he seldom attended the 
Lodge, and so far as known, never held any of- 
ficial position in the Lodge; he was, therefore, 
elected and served as Grand Master without having 
been a Worshipful Master of a Subordinate Lodge. 
In consequence of his being in Richmond attending 
the Legislature, he was probably called upon by his 
brethren, year after year, to represent the Lodge in 
the Grand Lodge, and while discharging this duty, 
was placed in line of promotion, and continued un- 
til he reached the Grand East. He died on the 15th 
of May, 1861, and was buried at his old home, 
Green Branch, in Spotsylvania county. 



AMERICAN MASON 235 

Beverley R. Wellford, Jr., was elected 
Grand Master in December, 1877, and served two 
years, his term closing December, 1879. His first 
annual address to the Grand Lodge was perhaps 
one of the ablest papers ever read before that 
Grand Body. Applause followed its reading, and a 
motion, which was adopted unanimously, that ten 
thousand copies of it be printed in pamphlet form 
for circulation among the Craft, a compliment sel- 
dom paid to a Grand Master in Virginia. Most 
Worshipful Brother Wellford is a native of 
Fredericksburg, and having received a col- 
legiate education, selected the law as his pro- 
fession. He was an active member of Lodge 
No. 4, before the war, and held nearly every office 
in it, including that of Worshipful Master. Just 
before the war he settled in Richmond, where he 
practiced his profession with success, and to which 
place he moved his membership and became a 
member of Metropolitan Lodge, No. 11, and while 
he was not a member of Lodge No. 4 at the time 
he was elected Grand Master, the Lodge still asserts 
her claim to him. Brother Wellford held for sev- 
eral years the high and responsible position of 
Judge of the Circuit Court of the city of Richmond, 
which he adorned with culture, ability, and up- 
rightness. 



236 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

Capt. Silvanus JaIRson Quinn was bom in 
Georgia March 8, 1837, moving to Mississippi at 
the age of ten. He served throughout the War 
Between the States, being promoted to Captain of 
Co. A, 13th Miss. Reg., Barksdale's Brigade. 

He was made a Master Mason in 1863. At the 
close of the war he married and settled in Fred- 
ericksburg, at once identifying himself with its 
public interests, filling with faithfulness many 
prominent positions of honor and trust. He served 
Fredericksburg Lodge, No. 4, as Worshipful Mas- 
ter three years, 1874-76 and 1888-89. 

He was elected Grand Master of Masons in Vir- 
ginia in 1907, serving one year. His address be- 
fore the Grand Lodge of Virginia in 1908 is 
considered a literary masterpiece, and has been 
printed and sent to all parts of the world. His 
contributions to literature include histories of 
Fredericksburg Lodge, No. 4, A. F. & A. M., and 
the city of Fredericksburg. 

Most Worthy Brother Quinn was a leader in 
Church and Masonic circles, his well-balanced 
judgment, keen discernment, broad culture and 
splendid ability commanding the admiration of the 
public. He was a tower of strength to all causes 
that make for higher citizenship. His was a beauti- 
ful life lived to benefit mankind; truly the fra- 



American mason 23? 

grance of his wise and gentle spirit lingers far 
down the years. 

On Sept. 6, 1910, M. W. Brother Quinn passed 
to the Celestial Lodge above and was buried with 
Masonic honors by the Grand Lodge of Virginia in 
the family lot in the City Cemetery. 

Philip K. Bauman, born abroad, came with his 
parents to Fredericksburg, Va., in the third 
year of his age. He grew up in the community, 
and acquired a meagre common school education. 
Physically active and mentally alert, he engaged 
early in business, and prospered. In young man- 
hood he was made a Mason, and Free Masonry 
became a controlling factor in the subsequent 
development of his character and career. A mem- 
ber of Fredericksburg Lodge, No. 4, A. F. & A. M., 
till his death. Brother Bauman also held dual mem- 
berships in Arlington Lodge, No. 103, and in 
Bauman Lodge, which he founded at Sharps, Va. 

Proficient in the ritual, and an earnest student of 
the tenets of the Order, Brother Baumann was Mas- 
ter of each of the Lodges in which he held member- 
ship, not once, but several terms, except Freder- 
icksburg Lodge, No. 4, of which he was Junior 
Warden at the time of his death. He was a Royal 
Arch Mason of Fredericksburg Chapter, No. 23, 
R. A. M. In the Commandery, after five terms as 



238 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

Eminent Commander, oir Philip peremptorily de- 
clined to serve again. For one term he was Grand 
Master of Masons of Virginia, and when death 
claimed him. Grand Officers and Past Grand Officers 
from all over Virginia, some even from other states, 
assembled to attend his obsequies. 

AMERICAN LODGE, NO. 63 

In 1801, on account of political and social differ- 
ences among the brethren, a number united and 
applied for a dispensation to organize a new Lodge 
in Fredericksburg, to be known as Fredericksburg 
American Lodge. The dispensation was granted 
on the 26th day of February, 1801, and on the 15th 
day of December of the same year a charter was 
granted, appointing George W. B. Spooner (who 
was Master under the dispensation) Worshipful 
Master; Richard Johnston, Senior Warden, and 
Robert Hening, Junior Warden ; the number of the 
Lodge being 63. The Lodge flourished until the 
breaking out of the war between the states, when it 
suspended and was never resuscitated. It had 
among its members some of Fredericksburg's best 
citizens, nearly all of whom have since affiliated 
with No. 4. This Lodge furnished one Grand 
Master of Virginia, Hon. John S. Caldwell, in 
1856. This makes eight Grand Masters Freder- 



AMERICAN MASON 239 

icksburg Lodges have given to the Masons of 
Virginia. 

OLD LIST OF MEMBERS 

A most interesting relic is an autograph roll of 
members, beginning about the year 1765 and end- 
ing 1786. This roll contains one hundred and 
thirty-one names, among whom are some of the 
leading men in those days in the different profes- 
sions, as well as soldiers, statesmen, and jurists. 
Thousands of citizens, scattered to the four points 
of the compass, will recognize among them their 
ancestors, those patriotic, liberty-loving Masons, 
many of whom were conspicuous in the achievement 
of American independence. 

But among our honored brethren who have 
sacrificed their lives for their fellowmen, none oc- 
cupy a higher place in our esteem and affection 
than Dr. Francis Preston, a Past Master of our 
Lodge, and William Willis, a Past Senior Warden. 
Both sacrificed their lives nursing the victims of 
the scourge of yellow fever, the former in Fernan- 
dina, Florida, in 1876; and the latter in Memphis, 
Tennessee, in 1877. They responded to the call 
for volunteers, when the Physicians of these cities 
were worn out and exhausted, and most of the 
inhabitants except the sick and dying had deserted 
these cities. 



240 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 



Robert Armstead 
Rev. John Agnew 
William Allason 
John Aylett 
Robert Andrews 
Bowls Armstead 
Jonas P. Adams 
J. D. Aldsop 
Thomas L. Allison 
James Buchanan 
John Black 
John Benger 
Joseph Baker 
Thomas Burden 
William Ball 
David Blair 
Lewis Burwell 
William Byrd 
Bennett Brown 
James Brown 
Robert Benson 
B. Ball 

Andrew Buchanan 
James Blair 
Robert Brooke 
James Barber 
Daniel Campbell 
William Cunninghame 
Edward Carter 
William Champe 
James Colquhoun 
Alexander Cunninghame 
Charles Carter 
Peter Crawford 
Lachlan Campbell 
Thomas Carr 
Robert Beverly Chew 



Philippes Lewis Candon 
V. D. Camp 
Charles Croughton 
Robert Duncanson 
James Duncanson 
Nathaniel West Dandridge 
Robert Dick 
James Douglass 
Burket Davenport 
Alexander Donald 
James Denniston 
William Dangerfield 
William Drew 
Daniel Fitz Hugh 
Joseph Fox 
George Frazier 
Simon Frazier 
Rev. James Maury Fon- 
taine 
George French 
Richard Gambole 
Ludwell Grimes 
Richard Graham 
Samuel Griffin 
John Glassel 
Israel Gilpin 
William Grimmes 
James Gillis 
William Glassell 
Benjamin Grimes, Jr. 
Robert Halkerson 
William Hedgman 
Benjamin Hawkins 
Edward Hubbard 
Henry Habrison 
Richard Holt 
Adam Hunter 



AMERICAN MASON 



241 



Isaac Heaslop 
James Hume 
Rev. Archie Hamilton 
William Hunter 
James Herdman 
Hugh Houston 
Francis Irvin 
Robert Johnston 
Thomas Jones 
Charles Julian 
Andrew Johnston 
Benjamin Johnston 
William Jackson 
Edward Jones 
William Johnston, Jr. 
John Julian 
John Jamason 
William Knox 
Charles Lewis 
Thomas Landram 
Hugh Lennox 
Fielding Lewis 
Samuel Lyde 
Peter Lucas 
John Lewis 
Andrew Leitch 
John Leitch 
John Lustie 
Richard Lamb 
Hezekiah Levy 
Warner Lewis 
William McWilliams 
Willock Macky 
Rev. Adam Menzier 
James McKillrick 
James Mercer 
Ralph McFarlane 



James McPherson 

George Mercer 

Rev. James Marye 

George McCall 

Hugh Mercer 

Neil McCoull 

Alexander McKay 

Henry Mitchell 

John Miller 

George Mitchell 

Hudson Muse 

Rev. William Meldrum 

Edward Moore 

Thomas Montgomerie 

John Meals 

Fontaine Maury 

Theodore Martin 

Robert Merser 

John Neilson 

George Noble 

John Neilson, Jr. 

Nathaniel Pope 

Robert Phillips 

George Pattie 

Mann Page, Sr. (of Glou- 
cester) 

Mann Page, Sr. (Mans- 
field, Spotsylvania) 

Mann Page, Jr. (of Glou- 
cester) 

Mann Page, Jr. (Mans- 
field, Spotsylvania) 

William Porter 
Robert Patton 
John Penny 
Thomas Possy 
Walter Payne 



242 



WASHINGTON 



Charles Pearson 
William P. Quarles 
Gavin Rodgers 
John Richards 
Thomas Robertson 
William Reid 
Robert Richie ^ 

James Robb 
T. Reintz 
John Sutherland 
Waller Stewart 
James Straughan 
John Sorrell 
John Stewart 
Robert Spotswood 
John Semple 
Alexander Shepherd 
William Scott 
Richard Selden 
Antony Strother 
William Straughan 
James Somerville 
Robert Slaughter 
John Spotswood 
William Smith 
John Smith 
John Swan 
Lawrence Slaughter 
William Stone 
Colonel John Thornton 
Reuben Thornton 
Edmund Taylor 
John Turner 
William Thompson 
Francis Taliaferro 
John Taliaferro (King 
George) 



Thomas Thornton 
G. C. Tucker 
Charles Turner 
John Taliaferro (Spotsyl- 
vania) 
Oliver Towles 
Charles Urquhart 
Jacob Von Braam 
Zachariah Vawter 
Edward Vass 
Alexander Wodrow 
George Washington 
George Waugh 
Henry Willis 
Gowrie Waugh 
Henry Woodward 
John Williams 
Lewis Willis 
George Weed on 
Thomas Walker 
John Whitefield 
William Woodford 
Henry Woodford 
Robert Willis 
James Weatherston 
James Wignall 
John Welch 
Gustav. B. Wallace 
William B. Wallace 
Henry White 
George Wheeler 
William Woddrop 
John Win gate 
Charles Woodmason 
Charles Yates 



PART VI 



GEORGE WASHINGTON'S WILL 

VIRGINIA, Fairfax, ss. 
I, George Deneale, Clerk of Fairfax County Court, 
do certify. That the subsequent copy of the last 
Will and Testament of George Washington, de- 
ceased, late President of the United States of 
America, with the Schedule annexed, is a true 
copy from the original, recorded in my office. 
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set 
my hand, this 23d day of January, 1800. 
GEO. DENEALE, C. F, C, 

IN THE NAME OF GOD, Amen. 

I GEORGE WASHINGTON, of Mount Vernon, 
, a citizen of the United States, and lately presi- 
dent of the same. Do make, ordain, and declare this 
Instrument, which is written with my own hand, and 
every page thereof subscribed with my name,* to 
* In the original manuscript, George Washington's name is 
nvritten at the bottom of every page. 

243 



244 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

be my last will and testament, revoking all 
others. 

Imprimis, All my debts, of which there are but 
few, and none of magnitude, are to be punctually 
and speedily paid; and the legacies hereinafter 
bequeathed, are to be discharged as soon as cir- 
cumstances will permit, and in the manner directed. 

Item, To my dearly beloved wife, Martha 
Washington, I give and bequeath the use, profit, 
and benefit of my whole estate, real and personal, 
for the term of her natural life, except such parts 
thereof as are specially disposed of hereafter. My 
improved lot in the town of Alexandria, situated on 
Pitt and Cameron streets, I give to her and her heirs 
forever; as I also do my household and kitchen 
furniture of every sort and kind, with the liquors 
and groceries which may be on hand at the time of 
my decease, to be used and disposed of as she may 
think proper. 

Item, Upon the decease of my wife, it is my 
will and desire, that all the slaves which I hold in 
my oivn right, shall receive their freedom. To 
emancipate them during her life, would, though 
earnestly wished by me, be attended with such in- 
superable difficulties, on account of their intermix- 
ture by marriage with the dower negroes, as to ex- 
cite the most painful sensations, if not disagree- 



AMERICAN MASON 245 

able consequences to the latter, while both descrip- 
tions are in the occupancy of the same proprietor; 
it not being in my power, under the tenure by 
which the negroes are held, to manumit them. And 
whereas, among those who will receive freedom ac- 
cording to this device, there may be some who, 
from old age or bodily infirmities, and others who, 
on account of their infancy, will be unable to sup- 
port themselves, it is my will and desire that all 
who come under the first and second description, 
shall be comfortably clothed and fed by my heirs 
while they live; and that such of the latter descrip- 
tion as have no parents living, or, if living, shall 
be unable or unwilling to provide for them, shall 
be bound by the court until they shall arrive at the 
age of twenty-five years ; and in cases where no rec- 
ord can be produced, whereby their ages can be as- 
certained, the judgment of the court upon its own 
view of the subject, shall be adequate and final. 
The negroes thus bound, are, by their masters or 
mistresses, to be taught to read and write, and be 
brought up to some useful occupation, agreeably to 
the laws of the commonwealth of Virginia, provid- 
ing for the support of orphan and other poor chil- 
dren. And I do hereby expressly forbid the sale 
or transportation out of the said commonwealth, of 
any slave I may die possessed of, under any pre- 



246 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

tense whatsoever. And I do moreover most point- 
edly and most solemnly enjoin it upon my execu- 
tors hereafter named, or the survivors of them, to 
see that this clause respecting slaves, and every part 
thereof, be religiously fulfilled at the epoch at 
which it is directed to take place, without evasion, 
neglect, or delay, after the crops which may then be 
on the ground are harvested, particularly as it re- 
spects the aged and infirm; seeing that a regular 
and permanent fund be established for their sup- 
port as long as they are subjects requiring it, not 
trusting to the uncertain provision made by individ- 
uals. And, to my mulatto man, William, calling 
himself William Lee, I give immediate freedom, or 
if he should prefer it, on account of the accidents 
which have befallen him, and which have rendered 
him incapable of walking, or any other active em- 
ployment, to remain in the situation in which he 
now is, it shall be optional to him to do so ; in either 
case, however, I allow him an annuity of thirty dol- 
lars during his natural life, which shall be inde- 
pendent of the victuals and clothes he has been ac- 
customed to receive, if he chooses the latter alterna- 
tive; but in full with his freedom, if he prefers the 
first; and this I give him as a testimony of my sense 
of his attachment to me, and for his faithful services 
during the revolutionary war. 



AMERICAN MASON 247 

Item, To the trustees, governors, or by what- 
soever other name they may be designated, of the 
academy in the town of Alexandria, I give and be- 
queath, in trust, four thousand dollars, or in other 
words, twenty of the shares which I hold in the bank 
of Alexandria, toward the support of a free school, 
established at, and annexed to, the said academy, 
for the purpose of educating orphan children, or 
the children of such other poor and indigent per- 
sons as are unable to accomplish it with their own 
means, and who, in the judgment of the trustees of 
the said seminary, are best entitled to the benefit of 
this donation. The aforesaid twenty shares I give 
and bequeath in perpetuity, the dividends of which 
are to be drawn for, and applied by the said trus- 
tees, for the time being, for the uses above men- 
tioned; the stock to remain entire and untouched, 
unless indications of failure of the said bank 
should be so apparent, or a discontinuance thereof 
should render a removal of this fund necessary. 
In either of these cases, the amount of the stock 
here devised is to be vested in some other bank or 
public institution, whereby the interest may with 
regularity and certainty be drawn and applied as 
above. And, to prevent misconception, my mean- 
ing is, and is hereby declared to be, that these 
twenty shares are in lieu of, and not in addition to, 



248 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

the £1000 given by mis^e letter some years ago, 
in consequence whereof an annuity of £50 has 
since been paid to the support of this institution. 
Item. Whereas by a law of the commonwealth 
of Virginia, enacted in the year 1785, the legisla- 
ture thereof was pleased, as an evidence of its ap- 
probation of the services I had rendered the public 
during the revolution, and partly, I believe, in con- 
sideration of my having suggested the vast advan- 
tages which the community would derive from the 
extension of its inland navigation, under legislative 
patronage, to present me with one hundred shares 
of one hundred dollars each, in the incorporated 
company established for the purpose of extending 
the navigation of the James River, from the tide 
water to the mountains; and also with fifty shares 
of £100 sterling each, in the corporation of another 
company, likewise established for the similar pur- 
pose of opening the navigation of the river Potom- 
mac, from the tidewater to Fort Cumberland; the 
acceptance of which, although the offer was highly 
honorable and grateful to my feelings, was refused, 
as inconsistent with a principle which I had adopted, 
and have never departed from; namely, not to 
receive pecuniary compensation for any services I 
could render my country in its arduous struggle 
with Great Britain for its rights, and because I 



AMERICAN MASON 249 

have evaded similar propositions from other states 
in the union; adding to this refusal, however, an 
intimation, that, if it should be the pleasure of the 
legislature to permit me to appropriate the said 
shares to public uses, I would receive them on these 
terms with due sensibility; and this is having con- 
sented to, in flattering terms, as will appear by a 
subsequent law, and sundry resolutions, in the most 
ample and honorable manner. I proceed, after 
this recital, for the more correct understanding of 
the case, to declare, That as it has always been a 
source of serious regret with me, to see the youth 
of these United States sent to foreign countries for 
the purposes of education, often before their minds 
were formed, or they had imbibed any adequate 
ideas of the happiness of their own; contracting, 
too frequently, not only habits of dissipation and 
extravagance, but principles unfriendly to repub- 
lican government, and to the true and genuine lib- 
erties of mankind, which, thereafter, are rarely 
overcome. For these reasons, it has been my ar- 
dent wish to see a plan devised, on a liberal scale, 
which would have a tendency to spread systematic 
ideas through all parts of this rising empire, there- 
by to do away local attachments and state preju- 
dices, as far as the nature of things would, or in- 
deed ought to admit, from our national councils. 



250 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

Looking anxiously forward to the accomplishment 
of so desirable an object as this is, in my estimation, 
my mind has not been able to contemplate any plan 
more likely to affect the measure, than the establish- 
ment of a university in a central part of the United 
States, to which the youths of fortune and talents 
from all parts thereof, might be sent for the com- 
pletion of their education in all the branches of 
polite literature, in the arts and sciences, in acquir- 
ing knowledge in the principles of politics and good 
government; and, as a matter of infinite importance 
in my judgment, by associating with each other, 
and forming friendships in juvenile years, be en- 
abled to free themselves in a proper degree, from 
those local prejudices and habitual jealousies which 
have just been mentioned, and which, when carried 
to excess, are never failing sources of disquietude to 
the public mind, and pregnant of mischievous con- 
sequences to this country. Under these impres- 
sions so fully dilated. 

Item. I give and bequeath, in perpetuity, the 
fifty shares which I hold in the Potowmac company, 
under the aforesaid acts of the legislature of Vir- 
ginia, toward the endowment of a university to be 
established within the limits of the District of Co- 
lumbia, under the auspices of the general govern- 
ment, if that government should incline to extend 



AMERICAN MASON 251 

a fostering kand toward it; and until such seminary 
is established, and the funds arising from these 
funds shall be required for its support, my further 
will and desire is, that the profit accuring there- 
from, shall, whenever the dividends are made, be 
laid out in purchasing stock in the bank of Colum- 
bia, or some other bank, at the discretion of my exe- 
cutors, or by the treasurer of the United States for 
the time being, under the direction of Congress, 
provided that honorable body should patronize the 
measure; and the dividends proceeding from the 
purchase of such stock are to be vested in more 
stock, and so on, until a sum adequate to the accom- 
plishment of the object is attained, of which I have 
not the smallest doubt before many years pass 
away, even if no aid and encouragement is given by 
legislative authority, or from any other source. 

Item, The hundred shares which I hold in the 
James River company, I have given, and now con- 
firm, in perpetuity, to and for the use and benefit 
of Liberty Hall Academy, in the coimty of Rock- 
bridge, in the commonwealth of Virginia. 

Item, I release, exonerate, and discharge, the 
estate of my deceased brother, Samuel Washington, 
from the payment of the money which is due to me 
for the land I sold to Philip Pendleton, lying in the 
county of Berkley, who assigned the same to him, 



252 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

the said Samuel, who, b^greement, was to pay me 
therefor; and 'whereas by some contract, the pur- 
port of which was never communicated to me, be- 
tween the said Samuel and his son Thornton Wash- 
ington, the latter became possessed of the aforesaid 
land, without any conveyance having passed from 
me, either to the said Pendleton, the said Samuel, 
or the said Thornton, and without any consideration 
having been made, by which neglect, neither the 
legal nor equitable title has been alienated; it rests 
therefore with me, to declare my intentions con- 
cerning the premises; and these are, to give and 
bequeath the said land to whomsoever the said 
Thornton Washington, who is also dead, devised 
the same, or to his heirs forever, if he died intestate, 
exonerating the estate of the said Thornton, equally 
with that of the said Samuel, from payment of the 
purchase money, which, with interest, agreeably to 
the original contract with the said Pendleton, would 
amount to more than lOOOZ. And whereas, two 
other sons of my said deceased brother Samuel, 
namely, George Steptoe Washington, and Lawrence 
Augustine Washington, were, by the decease of 
those to whose care they were committed, brought 
under my protection, and, in consequence, have 
occasioned advances on my part for their education 
at college and other schools, and for their board, 



AMERICAN MASON 253 

clothing, and other incidental expenses, to the 
amount of near five thousand dollars, over and 
above the sums furnished by their estate; which 
sum it may be inconvenient for them or their 
father's estate to refund. I do, for these reasons, 
acquit them and the said estate from the payment 
thereof; my intention being, that all accounts be- 
tween them and me, and their father's estate and me 
shall stand balanced. 

Item. The balance due to me from the estate 
of Bartholomew Dandridge, deceased, my wife's 
brother, and which amounted, on the first day of 
October, 1795, to 425/. as will appear by an ac- 
count rendered by his deceased son, John Dan- 
dridge who was the acting executor of his father's 
will, I release and acquit them from the payment 
thereof. And the negroes, then thirty three in num- 
ber, formerly belonging to the said estate, who were 
taken in execution, sold, and purchased in on my 
account, in the year , and ever since have re- 
mained in the possession and to the use of Mary, 
widow of the said Bartholomew Dandridge, with 
their increase, it is my will and desire, shall con- 
tinue and be in her possession, without paying hire, 
or making compensation for the same, for the time 
past or to come, during her natural life; at the ex- 
piration of which, I direct, that all of them who are 



254 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

forty years old and upward, shall receive their 
freedom ; and all under that age and above sixteen, 
shall serve seven years and no longer; and all under 
sixteen years, shall serve until they are twenty five 
years of age, and then be free. And to avoid dis- 
putes respecting the ages of any of these negroes, 
they are to be taken into the court of the county in 
which they reside, and the judgment thereof, in this 
relation, shall be final, and record thereof made, 
which may be adduced as evidence at any time 
thereafter, if disputes should arise concerning the 
same. And I further direct, that the heirs of said 
Barth. Dandridge, shall equally share the benefits 
arising from the services of the said negroes, 
according to the tenor of this devise, upon the 
decease of their mother. 

Item, If Charles Carter, who intermarried with 
my niece Betty Lewis, is not sufficiently secured in 
the title to the lots he had of me in the town of 
Fredericksburg, it is my will and desire, that my 
executors shall make such conveyances of them as 
the law requires to render it perfect. 

Item, To my nephew, Wm, Augustine Wash- 
ington, and his heirs, if he should conceive them to 
be objects worth prosecuting, a lot in the town of 
Manchester, opposite to Richmond, No. 265, drawn 
on my sole account, and also the tenth of one or 



AMERICAN MASON 255 

two hundred acre lots, and two or three half acre 
lots, in the city and vicinity of Richmond, drawn in 
partnership with nine others, all in the lottery of 
the deceased William Bird, are given; as is also a 
lot which I purchased of John Hood, conveyed by 
William Willie and Samuel Gordon, trustees of 
the said John Hood, numbered 139, in the town of 
Edinburgh, in the county of Prince George, state of 
Virginia. 

Item. To my nephew, Bushrod Washington, I 
give and bequeath all the papers in my possession 
which relate to my civil and military administration 
of the affairs of this country; I leave to him also 
such of my private papers as are worth preserving; 
and, at the decease of my wife, and before, if she 
is not inclined to retain them, I give and bequeath 
my library of books and pamphlets of every kind. 

Item. Having sold lands which I possessed in 
the state of Pennsylvania, and part of a tract held 
in equal right with George Clinton, late governor 
of New York; my share of land and interest in the 
Great Dismal Swamp, and a tract of land which I 
owned in the county of Gloucester; withholding the 
legal titles thereto, until the consideration money 
should be paid; and having moreover leased, and 
conditionally sold, as will appear by the tenor of 
the said lease, all my lands upon the Great Ken- 



256 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

hawa, and a tract upon Difficult Run, in the county 
of Loudon, it is my will and direction, that when- 
soever the contracts are fully and respectively com- 
plied with, according to the spirit, true intent, and 
meaning thereof, on the part of the purchasers, 
their heirs or assigns, that then, and in that case, 
conveyances are to be made, agreeable to the terms 
of said contracts, and the money arising therefrom, 
when paid, to be vested in bank stock; the dividends 
whereof, as of that also, which is already vested 
therein, is to inure to my said wife during her life; 
but the stock itself is to remain and be subject to 
the general distribution hereafter directed. 

Item, To the Earl of Buchan, I recommit "the 
box made of the oak that sheltered the brave Sir 
William Wallace after the battle of Falkirk," pre- 
sented to me by his lordship in terms too flattering 
for me to repeat, with a request "to pass it, on the 
event of my decease, to the man in my country who 
should appear to merit it best, upon the same con- 
ditions that have induced him to send it to me." 
Whether easy or not, to select the man who might 
comport with his lordship's opinion in this respect, 
is not for me to say; but conceiving that no dis- 
position of this valuable curiosity can be more 
eligible than the recommitment of it to his own 
cabinet, agreeably to the original design of the 



AMERICAN MASON 257 

Goldsmith's company of Edinburg, who presented 
it to him, and, at his request, consented that it 
should be transferred to me. I do give and be- 
queath the same to his lordship ; and, in case of his 
decease, to his heir, with my grateful thanks for the 
distinguished honour of presenting it to me, and 
more especially for the favourable sentiments with 
which he accompanied it. 

Item. To my brother, Charles Washington, I 
give and bequeath the gold headed cane left me by 
Dr. Franklin, in his will. I add nothing to it, be- 
cause of the ample provision I have made for his 
issue. To the acquaintances and friends of my 
juvenile years, Lawrence Washington, and Robert 
Washington, of Chotanct, I give my other two gold 
headed canes, having my arms engraved on them; 
and to each, as they will be useful where they live, 
I leave one of the spyglasses, which constituted 
part of my equipage during the late war. To my 
compatriot in arms, and old and intimate friend. 
Dr. Craik, I give my bureau, or, as the cabinet- 
makers call it, tambour secretary, and the circular 
chair an appendage of my study. To Dr. David 
Stewart, I give my large shaving and dressing table, 
and my telescope. To the Rev. now Bryan Lord 
Fairfax, I give a Bible, in three large folio volumes, 
with notes, presented to me by the Rt. Rev. Thomas 



258 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

Wilson, bishop of Sodo^nd Man. To Gen. De la 
Fayette, I give a pair of finely wrought steel pistols, 
taken from the enemy in the revolutionary war. 
To my sisters in law, Hannah Washington and Mil- 
dred Washington; to my friends, Eleanor Stuart, 
Hannah Washington, of Fairfield, and Elizabeth 
Washington, of Hayfield, I give each a mourning 
ring of the value of one hundred dollars. These 
bequests are not made for the intrinsic value of 
them, but as mementos of my esteem and regard. 
To Tobias Lear, I give the use of the farm which he 
now holds, in virtue of a lease from me to him and 
his deceased wife, for and during their natural 
lives, free from rent during his life; at the expira- 
tion of which, it is to be disposed of as in herein- 
after directed. To Sally B. Haynie, a distant rela- 
tion of mine, I give and bequeath three hundred 
dollars. To Sarah Green, daughter of the deceased 
Thomas Bishop, and to Ann Walker, daughter of 
John Alton, also deceased, I give each one hundred 
dollars, in consideration of the attachment of their 
fathers to me, each of whom having lived nearly 
forty years in my family. To each of my nephews, 
William Augustine Washington, George Lewis, 
George Steptoe Washington, Bushrod Washington, 
and Samuel Washington, I give one of the swords, 
or cutteaux, of which I may die possessed; and they 



AMERICAN MASON 259 

are to choose in the order they are named. These 
swords are accompanied with an injunction, not to 
unsheath them for the purpose of shedding blood, 
except it be for self defence or in defence of their 
country and its rights; and, in the latter case, to 
keep them unsheathed, and prefer falling with them 
in their hands, to the relinquishment thereof. 

And now, having gone through these specific 
devises, with explanations for the more correct 
understanding of the meaning and design of them, 
I proceed to the distribution of the more important 
parts of my estate, in manner following. 

First. To my nephew, Bushrod Washington, 
and his heirs, partly in consideration of an intima- 
tion to his deceased father, while we were bachelors, 
and he had kindly undertaken to superintend my 
estate during my military services in the former 
war between Great Britain and France, that if I 
should fall therein. Mount Vernon, then less ex- 
tensive in domain than at present, should become 
his property, I give and bequeath all that part 
thereof which is comprehended within the following 
limits, viz. Beginning at the ford of Dogue run, 
near my mill, and extending along the road, and 
bounded thereby, as it now goes, and ever has 
gone, since my recollection of it, to the ford of 
Little Hunting creek, at the Gum Spring, until it 



260 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

comes to a knowl opposite to an old road which 
formerly passed through the lower field of Muddy- 
hole farm, at which, on the north side of the said 
road, are three red or Spanish oaks, marked as a 
comer, and a stone placed; thence by a line of 
trees to be marked rectangular, to the back line or 
outer boundary of the tract between Thomas Mason 
and myself; thence with that line easterly, now 
double ditching, with a post and rail fence thereon, 
to the run of Little Hunting creek; thence with that 
run, which is the boundary between the lands of the 
late H. Peake and met to the tide water of the said 
creek; thence by that water to Potomac river; 
thence with the river to the mouth of Dogue creek, 
and thence with the said Dogue creek to the place 
of beginning at the aforesaid ford; containing up- 
ward of four thousand acres, be the same more or 
less, together with the mansion house and all other 
buildings and improvements thereon. 

Second, In consideration of the consanguinity 
between them and my wife, being as nearly related 
to her as to myself, as on account of the affection 
I had for, and the obligation I was under to, their 
father, when living, who from his youth, had at- 
tached himself to my person, and followed my 
fortunes through the vicissitudes of the late revolu- 
tion, afterward devoting his time to the superin- 



AMERICAN MASON 261 

tendance of my private concerns for many years, 
whilst my public employments rendered it imprac- 
ticable for me to do it myself, thereby affording 
me essential services, and always performing them 
in a manner the most filial and respectful. For 
these reasons, I say, I give and bequeath to George 
Fayette Washington, and Lawrence Augustine 
Washington, and their heirs, my estate east of 
Little Hunting Creek, lying on the river Potomac, 
including the farm of three hundred and sixty 
acres, leased to Tobias Lear, as noticed before, and 
containing in the whole, by deed, two thousand 
and thirty-seven acres, be it more or less; which 
said estate it is my will and desire should be equi- 
tably and advantageously divided between them, 
according to quantity, quality and other circum- 
stances, when the youngest shall have arrived at 
the age of twenty one years, by three judicious and 
disinterested men ; one to be chosen by each of the 
brothers, and the third by these two. In the mean 
time, if the termination of my wife's interest therein 
should have ceased, the profits arising therefrom 
are to be applied for their joint uses and benefit. 

Third, And whereas, it has always been my in- 
tention, since my expectation of having issue has 
ceased, to consider the grand children of my wife, 
in the same light as I do my own relations, and to 



262 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

act a friendly part by them, more especially by 
the two whom we have raised from their earliest 
infancy; namely, Eleanor Park Custis, and George 
Washington Park Custis; and whereas, the former 
of these hath lately intermarried with Lawrence 
Lewis, a son of my deceased sister, Betty Lewis, 
by which union the inducement to provide for them 
both has been increased; wherefore I give and be- 
queath to the said Lawrence Lewis, and Eleanor 
Park Lewis, his wife, and their heirs, the residue 
of my Mount Vernon estate, not already devised to 
my nephew, Bushrod Washington, comprehended 
within the following description, viz. All the land 
north of the road leading from the ford of Dogue 
run to the Gum Spring, as described in the devise 
of the other part of the tract to Bushrod Washing- 
ton, until it comes to the stone, and three red, or 
Spanish oaks on the knowl; thence with the rect- 
angular line to the back line, between Mr. Mason 
and me; thence with that line westerly along the 
new double ditch to Dogue run, by the tumbling 
dam of my mill; thence with the said run to the 
ford aforementioned ; to which I add all the land I 
possess west of the said Dogue run and Dogue 
creek, bounded easterly and southerly thereby; to- 
gether with the mill, distillery, and all other houses 
and improvements on the premises; making to- 



AMERICAN MASON 263 

gether about two thousand acres, be it more or less. 

Fourth. Actuated by the principles already 
mentioned, I give and bequeath to George Wash- 
ington Park Custis, the grandson of my wife, and 
my ward, and to his heirs, the tract I hold on Four 
Mile Run, in the vicinity of Alexandria, containing 
one thousand two hundred acres, more or less, and 
my entire square. No. 21, in the city of Wash- 
ington. 

Fifth. All the rest and residue of my estate, 
real and personal, not disposed of in manner afore- 
said, in whatsoever consisting, wheresoever lying, 
and wheresoever found, a schedule of which, as far 
as is recollected, with a reasonable estimate of its 
value, is hereunto annexed, I desire may be sold 
by my executors, at such times, in such manner, 
and on such credits, if an equal, valid, and satis- 
factory distribution of the specific property cannot 
be made without, as in their judgment shall be most 
conducive to the interest of the parties concerned, 
and the monies arising therefrom to be divided 
into twenty-three equal parts, and applied as fol- 
lows, viz. To William Augustine Washington, Eliza- 
beth Spotswood, Jane Thornton, and the heirs of 
Ann Ashton, son and daughter of my deceased 
brother Augustine Washington, I give and bequeath 
four parts, that is, one part to each of them; to 



264 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

Fielding Lewis, George Lewis, Robert Lewis, 
Howell Lewis, and Betty Carter, sons and daughter 
of my deceased sister Betty Lewis, I give and be- 
queath five other parts, one to each of them; to 
George Steptoe Washington, Lawrence A, Washing- 
ton, Harriet Parks, and the heirs of Thornton Wash- 
ington, sons and daughter of my deceased brother 
Samuel Washington, I give and bequeath the other 
four parts, one part to each of them; to Corbin 
Washington, and the heirs of Jane Washington, son 
and daughter of my deceased brother John A, 
Washington, I give and bequeath two parts, one part 
to each of them; to Samuel Washington, Frances 
Ball, and Mildred Hammond, son and daughters 
of my brother Charles Washington, I give and be- 
queath three parts, one part to each of them; and to 
George F, Washington, Charles Aug, Washington, 
and Maria Washington, sons and daughter of my 
deceased nephew, George A, Washington, I give 
one other part, that is, to each a third of that part; 
to Eliz. Park Law, Martha Park Peter, and Eleanor 
Park Lewis, I give and bequeath three other parts, 
that is, a part to each of them; and to my nephews, 
Bushrod Washington, and Law. Lewis, and to my 
ward, the grandson of my wife, I give and bequeath 
one other part, that is, a third thereof to each of 
them. And if it should so happen, that any of the 



AMERICAN MASON 265 

persons whose names are here enumerated, un- 
known to me, should now be dead, or should die 
before me, that in either of these cases, the heirs of 
such deceased persons shall, notwithstanding, 
derive all the benefits of the bequest, in the same 
manner as if he or she was actually living at the 
time. And by way of advice, I recommend to my 
executors not to be precipitate in disposing of the 
landed property, therein directed to be sold, if from 
temporary causes the sale thereof should be dull; 
experience having fully evinced, that the price of 
land, especially above the falls of the rivers and 
on the western waters, has been progressively rising, 
and cannot be long checked in its increasing value. 
And I particularly recommend it to such of the 
legatees, under this clause of my will, as can make 
it convenient, to take each a share of my stock in 
the Potowmac company, in preference to the 
amount of what it might sell for; being thoroughly 
convinced myself, that no uses to which the money 
can be applied, will be so productive as the tolls 
arising from this navigation when in full operation, 
and this from the nature of things, it must be ere 
long, and more especially if that of the Shenandoah 
is added thereto. 

The family vault at Mount Vernon requiring re- 
pairs, and being improperly situated beside, I de- 



266 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

sire that a new one of brick, and upon a large scale, 
may be built at the foot of what is commonly called 
the Vineyard enclosure, on the ground which is 
marked out; in which my remains, with those of my 
deceased relations, now in the old vault, and such 
others of my family as may choose to be entombed 
there, may be deposited. And it is my express 
desire, that my corpse may be interred in a private 
manner, without parade or funeral oration. 

Lastly, I constitute and appoint my dearly be- 
loved wife, Martha Washington, my nephews Wil- 
liam Augustine Washington, Bushrod Washington, 
George Steptoe Washington, Samuel Washington, 
and Lawrence Lewis, and my ward George Wash- 
ington Park Custis, when he shall have arrived at 
the age of twenty years, executrix and executors of 
this my WILL and testament; in the construction 
of which, it will readily be perceived, that no pro- 
fessional character has been consulted, or has had 
any agency in the draught; and, that although it 
has occupied many of my leisure hours to digest, 
and to throw it into its present form, it may, not- 
withstanding, appear crude and incorrect; but hav- 
ing endeavoured to be plain and explicit in all the 
devises, even at the expence of prolixity, perhaps 
of tautology, I hope and trust, that no disputes will 
arise concerning them; but if, contrary to expecta- 



AMERICAN MASON 267 

tion, the case should be otherwise from the want 
of legal expression, or the usual technical terms, or 
because too much or too little has been said on any 
of the devises to be consonant with law, my will 
and direction expressly is, that all disputes, if un- 
happily any should arise, shall be decided by three 
impartial and intelligent men, known for their 
probity and good understanding; two to be chosen 
by the disputants, each having the choice of one, 
and the third by those two; which three men thus 
chosen shall, unfettered by law or legal construc- 
tions, declare the sense of the testator's intentions; 
and such decision is, to all intents and purposes, 
to be as binding on the parties as if it had been 
given in the supreme court of the United States. 

In witness of all and each of the things herein con- 
tained, I have set my hand and seal, this ninth 
day of July, in the year one thousand seven hun- 
dred and ninety,''^ and of the independence of the 
United States the twenty fourth. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

* It appears the testator omitted the word nine. 



268 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 



SCHEDULE 

Of property comprehended in the foregoing Will, di- 
rected to be sold, and some of it conditionally is sold: 
with descriptive and explanatory notes thereto. 



IN VIRGINIA 


. 






Acres. 


Price. 


DoUars. 


Loudon CO. Difficult Run, 


300 




6,666a 


Loudon and Faquier, 








Ashby's Bent, 


2,481 


lOd 24,810? 
8 7,080) 




Chatten's Run 


885 




Berkley, S. fork of Bou 


- 






liskin. 


1,600 






Head of Evan's m. 


453 






In Wormly's line, 


183 







15 



2,236 20 
Frederick, bought from 

Mercer, 571 20 

Hampshire, on Potowmac 

river, above B. 24^ 

Gloucester, on North river, 400 
Nansemond, near Suffolk, 

one third of 1,119 acres, 373 
Great Dismal Swamp, my 

dividend thereof, 

Ohio River, Round Bottom, 587 

Little Kenhawa, 2,314 

Sixteen miles lower down, 2,448 

Opposite Big Bent 4,395 



about 



about 



Dollars. 

9,744 10 



44,720c 
11,420^ 

3,600e 
3,600/ 

2,984g 

20,000A 



97,440 1 



AMERICAN MASON 



269 



GREAT KENHAWA. 

Near the north west, 10,180 

East side above, 7,276 

Mouth of Cole river, 2,000 

Opposite thereto 2,950) ^q^^ 
Burning Spring 125 J 



207,000A: 



MARYLAND. 

Charles county, 600 6d. 

Montgomery, ditto, 519 12 

PENNSYLVANIA. 



Great Meadows, 



Mowhak river 



234 6 

NEW YORK. 
about 1,000 6 



NORTH WEST TERRITORY. 



On Little Miami, 
Ditto, 
Ditto, 



Rough creek, 
Ditto adjoining, 



239 

977 

1,235 

3,251 

KENTUCKY. 

3,000 
2,000 

5,000 



3,600 I 



1,404/1 



6,000o 



16,251/> 



10,000g 



270 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

LOTS, VIZ. 

CITY OF WASHINGTON. 

Two near the capitol, square 634, cost 963 dol- 
lars, and with buildings, 15,000r 

Nos. 5, 12, 13, and 14, the three last water lots 
on the Eastern Branch, in square 667, con- 
taining together 34,438 square feet, at 
twelve cents, 4,132 s 

ALEXANDRIA. 

Corner of Pitt and Prince streets, half an acre 
laid out into buildings, three or four of 
which are let on ground rent at three dol- 
lars per foot, 4,000f 

WINCHESTER. 

A lot in the town, of half an acre, and another 

in commons, of about six acres, supposed 400u 

BATH OR WARM SPRINGS. 

Two well situated, and had buildings to the 

amount of 150/. SOOv 



STOCK. 

UNITED STATES. 

Six per cent. 3,746 

Ditto deferred, 1,874) o rrjpi 

Three per cent. 2,946J ^'^^" 



6,246u; 



POTOWMAC COMPANY. 
Twenty four shares, cost 100/. sterling, 10,666jc 



AMERICAN MASON 271 

JAMES RIVER COMPANY. 
Five shares, each cost 100 dollars, 500y 

BANK OF COLUMBIA. 
One hundred and seventy shares, cost $40 each 6,800^ 

BANK OF ALEXANDRIA. 

1,000 
Beside twenty shares to the free school — 5. 

STOCK LIVING, VIZ. 

One covering horse, five carriage horses, four 
riding ditto, six brood mares, twenty work- 
ing horses and mares, two covering jacks, 
and three young ones; ten she asses, forty- 
two working mules, fifteen younger ones, 
three hundred and twenty nine head of 
horned cattle, six hundred and forty head 
of sheep, and a large stock of hogs, the 
precise number unknown. DUT' My man- 
ager has estimated this live stock at 7,000Z. 
but I shall set it down, in order to make a 
round sum, at 15,658 

Aggregate amount, 530,000 

NOTES. 

a. This tract for the size of it, is valuable, more 
for its situation than the quality of its soil, though 
that is good for farming; with a considerable pro- 
portion of ground that might very easily be im- 



272 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

proved into meadow. It lies on the great road 
from the city of Washington, Alexandria, and 
George Town, to Leesburgh and Winchester, at 
Difficult Bridge, nineteen miles from Alexandria, 
less from the city and George Town, and not more 
than three from Matildaville, at the great falls of 
Potowmac. There is a valuable seat on the prem- 
ises, and the whole is conditionally sold for the 
sum annexed in the schedule. 

6. What the selling prices of lands in the vicinity 
of these two tracts are, I know not; but compared 
with those above the ridge, and others below it, the 
value annexed will appear moderate; a less one 
would not obtain them from me. 

c. The surrounding land not superior in soil, 
situation, or properties of any sort, sells currently 
at from twenty to thirty dollars an acre. The low- 
est price is affixed to these. 

d. The observations made in the last note, apply 
equally to this tract, being in the vicinity of them, 
and of similar quality, although it lies in another 
county. 

e. This tract, though small, is extremely valu- 
able. It lies on Potowmac river, about twelve miles 
above the town of Bath, or Warm Springs, and is 
in the shape of a horse shoe, the river running 
almost around it. Two hundred acres of it are rich 



AMERICAN MASON 273 

low grounds, with a great abundance of the largest 
and finest walnut trees, which, with the produce of 
the soil, might, by means of the improved naviga- 
tion of the Potowmac, be brought to a shipping 
port with more ease, and at a smaller expense, than 
that which is transported thirty miles only by land. 

/. This tract is of second rate Gloucester low 
grounds. It has no improvements thereon, but lies 
on navigable water, abounding in fish and oysters. 
It was received in payment of a debt, carrying 
interest, and valued in the year 1789, by an impar- 
tial gentleman, at 8001. 

N. B. It has lately been sold, and there is due 
thereon, a balance equal to what is annexed in the 
schedule. 

g. These three hundred and seventy three acres 
are the third part of undivided purchases made by 
the deceased Fielding Lewis, Thos. Walker, and 
myself, on full conviction that they would become 
valuable. The land lies on the road from Suffolk 
to Norfolk, touches, if I am not mistaken, some part 
of the navigable water of Nansemond river. The 
rich Dismal Swamp is capable of great improve- 
ment; and, from its situation, must become ex- 
tremely valuable. 

h. This is an undivided interest which I held in 
the great Dismal Swamp Company, containing 



274 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

about four thousand acres, with my part of the 
plantation and stock thereon, belonging to the com- 
pany in the said swamp. 

i. These several tracts of land are of the first 
quality on the Ohio river, in the parts where they 
are situated, being almost, if not altogether, river 
bottoms. The smallest of these tracts is actually 
sold at ten dollars an acre, but the consideration 
therefor not received. The rest are equally valu- 
able, and will sell as high, especially that which 
lies just below the Little Kenhawa ; and is opposite 
to a thick settlement on the west side of the river. 
The four tracts have an aggregate breadth upon the 
river of sixteen miles, and are bounded there by 
that distance. 

k. These tracts are situated upon the great Ken- 
hawa river, and the first four are bounded thereby 
for more than forty miles. It is acknowledged by 
all who have seen them, and of the tract containing 
ten thousand nine hundred and ninety acres, which 
I have been on myself, I can assert, that there is no 
richer or more valuable land in all that region. 
They are conditionally sold for the sum mentioned 
in the schedule, that is, two hundred thousand dol- 
lars, and if the terms of that sale are not complied 
with, they will command considerable more. The 
tract, of which the one hundred and twenty five 



AMERICAN MASON 275 

acres is a moiety, was taken up by General Andrew 
Lewis and myself, for, and on account of a bitu- 
minous spring which it contains, of so inflammable 
a nature as to bum as freely as spirits, and is nearly 
as difficult to extinguish. 

I. I am but little acquainted with this land, al- 
though I have once been on it. It was received, 
many years since, in discharge of a debt due to me 
from Daniel Jenifer Adams, at the value annexed 
thereto, and must be worth more. It is very level; 
lies near the river Potowmac. 

m. This tract lies about thirty miles above the 
city of Washington, not far from Kitoctan. It is 
good farming land, and by those who are well ac- 
quainted with it, I am informed that it would sell 
at twelve or fifteen dollars per acre. 

71. This island is valuable on account of its local 
situation and other properties. It aff'ords an ex- 
ceeding good stand on Braddock's road from Fort 
Cumberland to Pittsburgh; and, beside a fertile 
soil, possesses a large quantity of natural meadow, 
fit for the sithe. It is distinguished by the appella- 
tion of the Great Meadows, where the first action 
with the French, in the year 1754, was fought. 

o. This is the moiety of about two thousand acres 
which remains unsold, of six thousand seventy one 
acres on the Mohawk river, Montgomery county, in 



276 WASHINGTON, THE GREAT 

a patent granted to Daniel Coxe, in the township 
of Coxborough and Carolina, as will appear by 
deed, from Marinus Willet and wife, to George 
Clinton, late governor of New York, and myself. 
The latter sales have been at six dollars an acre, 
and what remains unsold will fetch that or more. 

p. The quality of these lands and their situation, 
may be known by the surveyor's certificates, which 
are filed along with the patents. They lie in the 
vicinity of Cincinnati; one tract near the mouth of 
the Little Miami; another seven, and the third ten 
miles up the same. I have been informed that they 
will readily command more than they are estimated 
at. 

q. For the description of those tracts in detail, 
see Gen. Spotswood's letters, filed with the other 
papers relating to them. Beside the general good 
quality of the land, there is a valuable bank of 
iron ore thereon, which, when the settlement be- 
comes more populous, and settlers are moving that 
way very fast, will be found very valuable, as the 
Rough creek, a branch of Green river, affords 
ample water for furnaces and forges. 



AMERICAN MASON ' 277 

LOTS, VIZ. 

CITY OF WASHINGTON. 

r. The two lots near the capitol, in square 634, 
cost me nine hundred and sixty three dollars only; 
but in this price I was favoured, on condition that 
I should build two brick houses three stories high 
each; without this reduction the selling prices of 
these lots would have cost me about one thousand 
three hundred and fifty dollars. These lots, with 
the buildings on them, when completed will stand 
me in fifteen thousand dollars at least. 

5. Lots N^^- 5, 12, 13, and 14, on the Eastern 
Branch, are advantageously situated on the water; 
and although many lots much less convenient have 
sold a great deal higher, I will rate these at twelve 
cents the square foot only. 

ALEXANDRIA. 

f. For this lot, though unimproved, I have re- 
fused three thousand five hundred dollars. It has 
since been laid off into proper sized lots for build- 
ing on, three or four of which are let on ground 
rent for ever, at three dollars a foot on the street; 
and this price is asked for both fronts on Pitt and 
Prince streets. 



278 WASHINGTON THE GREAT 

WINCHESTER. 

u. As neither the lot in the town or common have 
any improvements on them, it is not easy to fix a 
price; but as both are well situated, it is presumed 
the price annexed to them in the schedule is a 
reasonable valuation. 

BATH. 

V, The lots in Bath, two adjoining, cost me to 
the best of my recollection between fifty and sixty 
pounds, twenty years ago ; and the buildings thereon 
1501. more. Whether property there has increased 
or decreased in its value, and in what condition the 
houses are, I am ignorant ; but suppose they are not 
valued too high. 

STOCK. 

w. These are the sums which are actually 
funded, and though no more in the aggregate than 
seven thousand five hundred and sixty six dollars, 
stand me in at least ten thousand pounds, Virginia 
money ; being the amount of bonded and other debts 
due to me, and discharged during the war, when 
money had depreciated in that rate; (^^ and was 
so settled by public authority. 



AMERICAN MASON 279 

X. The value annexed to these shares is what they 
actually cost me, and is the price affixed by law; 
and although the present selling price is under par, 
my advice to the legatees, for whose benefit they 
are intended, especially those who can afford to lie 
out of the money, is, that each take and should hold 
one; there being a moral certainty of a great and 
increasing profit arising from them in the course of 
a few years. 

y. It is supposed that the shares in the James 
River Company must also be productive; but of 
this I can give no decided opinion, for want of more 
accurate information. 

z. These are the nominal prices of the shares in 
the banks of Alexandria and Columbia; the selling 
prices vary according to circumstances; but as the 
stock usually divides from eight to ten per cent, per 
annum, they must be worth the former, at least, so 
long as the banks are conceived to be secure, al- 
though circumstances may sometimes make them 
below it. 

The value of the live stock depends more upon 
the quality than quantity of the different species of 
it; and this again upon the demand and judgment, 
or fancy of purchasers. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
Mount Vernon, July 9, 1799. 



INDEX * 



Abolitionists, first colony of, 

183. 
Adamses, The, 63. 
Addison, Rev., 55. 
Age, Mature, 19, 20, 22. 
Ahimon Rezon, 21. 
Alexandria, 45. 161, 166-8, 

186, 244, 247, 270, 277. 
Alfred, Man-of-War, 120. 
Allen, Ethan, 31. 

— William, 92. 
America, 64, 107, 201. 

— Grand Master of, 87, 93. 

— Provincial Grand Mas- 
ter of, 94, 98. 

American armv, 36. 

— dollar, 193-6. 

— flag, 120. 

— navy, 75. 

— Revolution, 30, 31, 41, 46, 
60-1. 66, 69, 70-1. 73-4. 77, 
81, 95, 97, 99, 101, 120-1, 
130, 182, 230. 

Daughters of, 128. 

Annapolis, Md., 123. 

Arbitration Society of Amer- 
ica, 190-2. 

Army, Continental, 36, 70, 
129. 

Ashe, Elizabeth Montfort, 
129. 

— John Baptista, 77, 129. 

Bacon's Rebellion, 133. 
Ball, Charles, 138. 

— Elizabeth, 138. 



Ball, George, 138. 

— John Augustine, 138. 

— Joseph, 136, 150-1. 

— Mary, 136-9. 

— Samuel, 138. 
Baltimore, Md., 45. 
Barbadoes, 140, 153. 
Basset, George Washington, 

227 
Bath, 278. 

Bauman, Philip K., 237. 
Beaufort, Duke of, 87, 94, 97- 

8. 
Belcher, James, 64. 
Belvoir plantation, 155. 
Beverly, England. 132. 
Bible, 2, 8, 9, 45, 48-9, 163, 

166, 215, 229-31. 

— St. John's Lodge, 46, 50. 
Blair, John, 33, 219. 
Blandford, Va., 217. 
Bon Homme Richard, man-of- 
war, 113, 120. 

Bordeaux, France, 70. 
Boston, Mass., 25, 27, 91, 178. 
Botts, A. B., 229. 
Bridge's Creek, Va., 134, 139, 

144. 
British, 33, 40, 129. 

— navy, 149. 

— Parliament, 63. 
Brooke, Robert, 232. 
Brooklyn, N. Y., 123. 
Buchan, Earl of, 256. 
Bunker Hill, Mass., 66. 
Burgesses, House of, 133, 

* For names of Lodges and Grand Lodges, see under Lodge and 
Grand Lodge, respectively. 

281 



282 



INDEX 



Burton, Robert, 119. 
Bush, Solomon, 12. 
Butler, Jane, 135-8. 
Byron, Lord, 92. 

Caldwell, John S., 238. 
Cambridge, Mass., 26, 30, 

178. 
Campbell, Daniel, 20. 
Capitol, United States, 51. 
Carolina, 25. 

Cartagena campaign, 153. 
Carter, Charles, 254. 
Caswell, Richard, 67. 
Cave, Washington's Masonic, 

24. 
Charlestown, W. Va., 24. 
Charters, 212, 231. 
Cherbourg, France, 123. 
Christ Church, Alexandria, 

Va., 166. 

Philadelphia, Pa., 34. 

Church of England, 63. 
Cincinnati Society of, 41, 187. 
Civil War, 231. 
Clark, Thomas, 129. 
Clay, Thomas Savage, 8. 
Clinton, DeWitt, 68. 
Clinton, George, 255, 276. 
Cohen, Moses, 72. 
Colombia, South America, 

153. 
Congress, Continental, 34, 40, 

n. 

— Federal, 11. 
Connecticut, 67-8, 182. 

— line, 27. 
Constitution of 1723, 22. 

— United States, 184. 
Continental Army, 70, 129. 

— Congress, 34, 40, 11. 
Conventions of Lodges, ZZ, 

63, 95, 216-17. 
Cornerstone of United States 

Capitol, 52. 
CornwalHs, Lord, 228. 
Cowpens, Battle of, 130. 



Coxe, Daniel, 23, 28, 88-90, 

276. 
Crawley, W. J. Chetwode, 19. 
Crown and Anchor Tavern, 

London, 97. 
Crutchfield, Oscar M., 234. 
Culpepper County, Va., 151. 

— Lord, 133. 

Custis, Daniel Park, 154. 

— Eleanor Park, 262. 

— George Washington 
Park, 262-3, 266. 

— Martha Dandridge, 154. 

Dandridge, Bartholomew, 253- 
4. 

— Mary, 253. 

— John, 253. 
Daniels, Ursula M., 128. 
Daughters of American Rev- 
olution, 128. 

Davies, William R., 67, 114. 
Davis, Rev., 55. 
Dawes, William, 60. 
Day, Benjamin, 221. 
Democracy, 199, 200. 
Dejumonville, M., 152. 
De Kalb, Baron, 70. 
De La Motta, Capt., 70. 
De Leon, Capt., 70. 
DeVal, Isaac, 71. 
Devignole, John, 92. 
Dismal Swamp Company, 

273. 
District of Columbia, 229. 
Dollar, American, 193-6. 
Drake, man-of-war, 123. 
Dudley, John G., 10. 

Edwards, Pierrepont, 67. 
Elizabethtown, N. J.. 45. 
England, 2Z, 61, 65, 85-6, 90- 

8, 124-6, 132, 205, 216. 
Episcopal Church, 166. 
Epping Forest, 136. 
Eutaw Springs, battle of, 

129. 



INDEX 



283 



Fairfax parish, 166. 

— Anne, 155. 

— County, Va., 141, 147, 
153. 

— Sir William, 143, 149, 
150-1, 162. 

Federal Congress, 11 . 
Festival of St. John the 

Evangelist, Philadelphia, 

34. 
France, 120-3. 
Frank, Col. Isaac, 70. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 22, 23, 29, 

59, (i7>, 68, 92, 96, 113, 

162, 257. 
Fredericksburg, Va., 17, 102, 

105, 137-9, 140, 142, 175, 

203-4. 
Freemasonry, French, 20. 

— Scottish, 20. 
Freemason's Arms Tavern, 

60. 

Free Mason's Hall, London, 
85-6, 96. 

Freemasons, Jewish, 69, 70. 

Freemason's Lodge, Philadel- 
phia, 96. 

— Sons of, 20. 

Free Schools, 186, 200, 247. 
French and Indian War, 24, 

27, 152, 175. 
French Masonry, 20. 

Gait, William G., 9. 

Gates, Horatio, 40. 

General Grand Master for 
the United States, 36-9. 

Georgetown, Md., 45, 161. 

Georgia, 25, 67, 71-2, 183. 

Gilpin, Colonel, 55. 

Gist, Mordecai, 68. 

Gloucester County, 134, 136. 

Gooch, General, 153. 

Grand Lodge, ancient, Eng- 
land, 61. 

District of Columbia, 

229. 



Grand Lodge, England, 61, 65, 

85-6, 90-8, 205. 

Ireland, 65, 217. 

Maryland, 44, 52, 173. 

Massachusetts, 27, 59, 

1Z, 89, 93, 172. 
modern, England, 

216. 

New Jersey, 11. 

New York, 8, 9, 22, 

32, 40, 42, 46, 48, 90. 
North Carolina, 64, 

94-6. 

Oklahoma, 11. 

Pennsylvania, 21-2, 

34-5, Z1, 39, 42-4, 89, 172, 

217. 
Scotland, 20, 65, 204, 

212, 217. 
St. John's Provincial, 

93. 

South Carolina, 171. 

Tennessee, 94-5. 

Va., 9-11, 43, 64, 204- 

5, 216-17, 228. 
Grand Master of America, 

87, 93. 
Gray, Wm. F., 223. 
Great Britain, 121, 182. 
Great Dismal Swamp, 255. 

— Meadows, 275. 
Green Dragon Tavern, 60. 
Greene, Nathaniel, Genl., 31, 

11. 
Gridley, Jeremy, 91-2. 

— Richard, 27, 60. 
Grove House, 124, 127, 128. 

Halifax, No. Carolina, 75-7, 
79, 81, 84-5, 87, 94, 96, 97, 
99, 101, 110, 112, 127, 128, 
129. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 66, 162. 

— Charles H., 48. 
Hancock, John, 31, 59, 60, 175. 
Harding, President, 47-8. 
Harnett, Cornelius, 64, 219. 



284 



INDEX 



Hart, Jonathan, 36. 
Harvard University, 174, 176- 

79. 
Hays, Moses Michael, 72. 
Haywood, Marshall de Lancy, 

89, 92. 
Henry, Patrick, 63. 
Hewes, Joseph, 114, 116-18. 
Houdon, 119-122. 
Howison, Samuel, 227. 

Ireland, 25, 62, 64-5, 217. 
Israel, IMikre, 72. 

Jackson, Andrew, 227. 
Jackson, James, 67, 72. 
James River, 248. 

Company, 279. 

Jay, John, 31. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 63, 73, 162. 
Jewish Alasons, 69, 70. 
Jews, 70, 71. 73. 
Johnson, Sir John, 32. 
Johnston, Samuel, 119. 
Jones, Allen, 109-12, 114, 116- 
7, 126. 

— Cadwallader, 113. 

— John Paul, 75, 82, 99, 
103-128. 

— Mrs. Willie, 130. 

— William Paul, 104. 

— William, 105, 109. 

— Willie, 109-13, 116-17, 
124-7. 

Julian, Charles, 209. 

Kentucky, 269. 

King George County, Va., 

141. 
Knox, Henry, 41-162. 
Kirkenbright, Scotland, 101. 
Kircudbright, Scotland, 99- 

100. 

LaCosta, Isaac, 72. 
Lafayette, 31, 42, 66, 70, 222- 
6, 258. 



Lafayette, Mme., 42. 
Lancaster County, 136. 
Lang, Ossian, 87, 89, 91-2. 
Langdon, Samuel, 179. 
Lear, Tobias, 258-261. 
Lee, Richard Henry, 73. 

— George, 154. 

— Robert E., 187. 

— "Lighthorse" Harry, 31. 
Leslie, General, 129. 

Levy, Benjamin, 73-4. 
Lewis, Andrew, 275. 
Lewis, Betty, 141. 254, 264. 

— Charles, 207. 

— Fielding, 141, 138, 207. 

— Lawrence, 184, 262, 264, 
266. 

— George, 258. 
Liberty, 196, 198. 

— Hall Academy, 186, 251. 

— personal, 198. 

— religious, 197. 
Little, Colonel, 55. 

— Kenhawa River, 274. 

— Miami River, 276. 
Livingston, Robert R., 31, 46- 

7, 50, 68. 
Lodge, Alexandria, No. 39, 
Pa., 42. 

22, Va., 43, 52, 

55. 

— American, No. 63, Va., 
238. 

Union, No. 1., Mass., 

27, 29, 35-6. 

— Astor, N. Y., 8. 

— Botetourt. Va., 213, 217. 

— Cabin Point Royal Arch, 
Va., 64, 217. 

— Cherrydale, Va., 10. 

— Edinburgh, Scotland, 20. 

— Falmouth, Va., 212. 

— First, Boston, Mass., 
60. 

— Fredericksburg No. 4, 
Va., 8-9, 79, 175, 203-4, 
212, 215, 217, 239. 



INDEX 



285 



Lodge, George Washington, 
N. Y.. 9. 

— No. 2, Pa., 72. 

— Holland, N. Y., 44. 

— Kihvinning, No. 122, 
Scotland, 101. 

— King David, No. 1, R. I., 
44, 171. 

— Marblehead. Mass., 60. 

— Norfolk, Va., 220. 

— Roval White Hart, 75, 
1^, 82-4, 94-5, 97, 101. 

— Social and Military Vir- 
tue. No. 227, Ireland, 24. 

— Solomon's, No. 1, Ga., 
71. 

N. Y., 40. 

— St. Andrew's, Mass., 60- 
1. 

Bernard, Scotland, 99. 

John's No. 1, N. H., 

100. 
N. Y., 9, 46- 

8. 

2, N. C., 171. 

Pa., 22. 

— Williamsburg, Va., 216. 
Lodges, Ancient, 62. 

— Constitution of, 213. 

— Convention of, Z2>, 95. 

— ^lilitary, 24, 27, 29, 2>(i, 
39. 

— Modern. 62. 

London, England, 62, 97, 85- 

6, 96. 
Louisiana, 20. 

Maddox Creek, Va., 138. 
Madison, IZ. 
Maffitt, Rev., 55. 
Marion, Francis, 31. 
Marshall, John, 66, 68. 
Marsteller, Colonel, 55. 
Maryland. 44, 52, 173. 269. 
Alary Washington house, 142. 
Mason, George, 142, 162, 182, 
184. 



Masonic birthday of Wash- 
ington. 8, 10. 

— Ideal of Wealth. 193. 

— Temple, 83, 85, 96. 
Massachusetts, 26-7, 30-2, Zl , 

59, 68, 12, 89, 93, 172, 

182. 
Mawev, Stuart, 108. 
Mercer, James, 217-19, 232. 
Mercer, John F., 183. 
Alilitarv Lodges, 66, 67. 
Milnor,' 68. 

Montague, Viscount, 90. 
Montfort, Henrj', 64. 

— Joseph. 64, 75, 80, 82-3, 
85-7, 89, 92-4, 96, 98, 110, 
127. 217, 219. 

Montgomery, George T., 48. 
Monument, Washington, 229. 

— Mother of Washington, 
227-8. 

— Yorktown, 228. 
Morgan, 162. 
Morris, Robert, 31, IZ. 

— William, 107. 
Morristown, N. J., 36. 
Morrow, John J., 48. 
Morton, Jacob, 46. 
Moses, Isaac, 73-4. 
Moultrie. William, 31. 
Mount Vernon, 26, 42, 133, 

134-5. 138. 141. 147-9, 153- 
7, 159, 166, 220, 259, 
265. 

Muir, Rev. Dr., 55. 

Myers, Samuel, 12. 

Nathan, Simon, 72. 
Naval Academy, \:. S., 123. 
Navy, American. 75. 
Newburgh, N. Y., 30. 

— Address, 40. 
New England, 25, 90-1. 

— Hampshire. 67, 101. 

— Jersey, 11, 23, 28, 36, 68, 
88-9. 

Newport, R. I., 44, 12, 171. 



286 



INDEX 



New York, 8, 9, 22-3, 25, 
29, 2>2, 40-8, 68, 88, 90, 
269. 
City, 45, 47. 

Noah, Mordecai, 73-4. 

Nones, Benjamin, 70. 

Norfolk, 217. 

— Duke of, 23. 

North America, Provincial 
Grand Master of, 90. 

— End caucus, 61. 

— Carolina, 2>2, 64, 75, 81, 
83,86,87-8, 94-7, 109, 111, 
114, 119, 120, 124-5, 130, 
171. 

Nunes, David, 71. 

— Moses, 71. 

Ogden, Aaron, 68. 
Oglethorpe, Gen., 71, 183. 
Ohio, 24, 68. 

— River, 152, 274. 
Company, 152. 

Oklahoma, 11. 
Old Charges, 19. 
Onderdonk, Frederick A., 48. 
Operative Freemasonry, 20. 
Otis, James, 31, 59, 63. 
Oxnard, Thomas, 91. 

Park, Col. John, 35. 
Parker, M. M., 230. 
Paris. France, 121. 
Paul, William, 105, 107, 109. 
Payne, Colonel, 55. 
Pennsylvania, 21-3, 25, 28, 30- 

5, Z7, 39, 43-4, 64, 68, 7 -, 

88-9, 92, 172, 182, 217, 255, 

269. 
Philadelphia, 22-5, 33-4, Z7, 

43, 45, 72-3, 89, 96, 158. 
Phillips, George H., 48. 
Phillips, Henry M., 72. 
Phillipse, Mary, 156. 
Phillips, Zalegman, 72. 
Pohick Church, 166. 
Pope, Anne, 133. 



Porter, General, 121-2. 
Portsmouth, N. H., 100. 
Potomac River, 54, 132, 137, 

152, 248, 275. 
Preston, Francis, 239. 
Price, Henry, 90. 
Prince William County, Va., 

139. 
Proctor, Colonel, 35. 
Prohibitionists, first colony 

of, 183. 
Protestants, 69. 
Provincial Grand Master of 

America, 90, 94, 98. 
New England, 

90-1. 

— — — — Pennsylvania, 
92. 

Pulling, John, 60. 
Putnam, Israel, 31, 162. 
~ Rufus, 68. 

Quinn, Silvanus Jackson, 
236. 

Ramsay, Colonel, 55. 
Randall, Thomas M., 72. 
Randolph, John, 210. 

— Peyton, 31. 
Rappahannock River, 103, 132, 

136-7, 139, 147, 155. 
Religious liberty, 197. 
Revere, Paul, 29, 31, 59, 61, 

68, 72. 
Rhodes scholarships, 188. 
Rice, W. H., 8. 
Richmond, Va., 9, 234-5, 255. 
Rising Sun Hotel, 210. 
Rhode Island, 44, 72, 171, 182. 
Robinson, Robert H., 48. 
Roll of Fredericksburg Lodge, 

239. 
Roman Catholics, 69. 
Roosevelt, 13. 
Rowe, John, 27. 
Roxbury, Mass., 27. 
Royal Arch Degree, 211-12. 



INDEX 



287 



Rumsey, Mr., 159. 
Russia, 121-2. 

Sachse, Julius F., 170. 
Salomon, Hyam, 72). 
Savannah, Ga., 71-2. 
Scotland, 20, 64-5, 100-1, 120, 

174, 204, 212, 217. 
Seal, American Union Lodge, 

29. 

— Fredericksburg Lodge, 
215. 

Seixas, Benjamin, 72. 
Serapis, man-of-war, 120-1. 
Sherman, Roger, 31, 184. 
Sheftall, Levi, 72. 

— Mordecai, 71. 

— Shaftall, 71. 

Sign of the Thistle, Halifax, 

N. C, 97. 
Simms, Colonel, 55. 
Slavery, 182-4, 198. 
Smith, William, 34. 
Society of the Cincinnati, 41. 
Somerset, Henry, 87, 
Sons of Freemasons, 20. 

Liberty, 61. 

South America, 153. 
South CaroHna, 68, 113, 171. 
Spencer, Nicholas, 133-4. 
Spitzer, Bernard M., 72. 
Spooner, George W. B., 238. 
St. Louis, Mo., 122. 
Stark, John, 31. 
Stearns, 9. 

Steuben, Baron, 31, 41. 
Stuart, Gilbert, 214. 
Sullivan, John, 31, 67. 
"Sun" Taven, Philadelphia, 

23, 89. 
Swearing, 167. 

Tarboro, N. C, 95. 
Tarleton, Colonel, 128-30. 
Temple of Virtue, Newburgh, 
N. Y., 40. 
— oldest Masonic, 75. 



Tennessee, 87, 94-5, 227. 
Tobago, 108-9. 
Tomlinson, Robert, 91. 
Trenton, N. J., 45. 
Truro parish, 166. 
"Tun" Tavern, Philadelphia, 
23. 

United States, 51, 94, 121, 123. 

Constitution, 184. 

Naval Academy, 123. 

Valley Forge, 30, 167. 

Vernon, Admiral, 153, 155. 

Virginia, 8-11, 17, 23, 32-3, 
43, 52, 64, 79, 87, 102, 105, 
148, 160, 182, 186, 204-5, 
212, 216-17. 

Wakefield, Va., 132-4, 136, 

139, 145, 147-8. 
Warner, Mildred, 134. 
Ware, William, 231. 
Warren, Joseph, 32, 59-60, 

66. 
Washington Academy, 186. 

— and Lee University, 187. 

— Anne, 133. 

— Augustine, 135-40, 145-6, 
148, 154, 263. 

— Bushrod, 255, 258-9, 262, 
264, 266. 

— Charles, 139, 237, 264. 

— College, 187. 

— D. C, 185, 187, 229, 270, 
277. 

_ Elizabeth, 133, 207. 

— George A., 264. 

— George Fayette, 261. 

— George Steptoe, 252, 258, 
264, 266. 

— John, 132-5, 138-9. 

— George, son of Augus- 
tine, 146; family, 132; 
birth of, 23; Masonic 
birthday, 8, 10, 170; at 
Wakefield, 147; at Bar- 



288 



PDEX 



badoes, 153; at Mount 
Vernon, 147, 157; initi- 
ated, 18, 206; passed, 18; 
raised, 18; Mother Lodge, 
203-27; inherits Mt. Ver- 
non, 154; education, 162; 
Churchman, 166; Ma- 
sonic Cave, 24 ; takes com- 
mand of Continental 
army, 61 ; Doctor of 
Laws, 174; Prayer at 
Valley Forge, 167; nom- 
inated as Grand Master 
of Va., 33, 218; nomi- 
nated as General Grand 
Master, 37-8; attends St. 
John's Day Festival, 34; 
address at Newburgh, 40 ; 
visitor at Solomon's 
Lodge, Poughkeepsie, N. 
Y., 40; President Society 
of Cincinnati, 41 ; Mas- 
ter of Alexandria Lodge, 
43; Honorary Member 
Holland Lodge, N. Y., 44 ; 
dedication N. Y. Book of 
Constitutions, 42 ; pre- 
sented with address by 
Grand Lodge of Mary- 
land, 44; accepts honor- 
ary membership in Alex- 
andria Lodge, 42; accepts 
apron from Lafayette, 42 ; 
inauguration as President 
of U. S., 46; President of 
U. S., 47 ; lays corner- 
stone of the Capitol, 51 ; 
visit to his mother, 49; 
death, 54; funeral, 56-7, 
220, 266; monument, 229; 
mother's monument, 227- 
8; will, 182, 243-279; frees 
slaves, 182 ; champion 
of arbitration, 189; father 
of American Trust Com- 
panies, 189; endowments 



for education, 185; pro- 
poses a national univer- 
sity, 248-51 ; personal 
characteristics, 146; char- 
ities, 168; purchases of 
land, 142; library, 177; 
portrait, 214; medal, 38; 
Masonic sentiments, 170. 
Washington, Lawrence Au- 
gustine, 252, 261, 264. 

132-4, 137, 140-1, 143. 

148-51, 153, 154. 

— Martha, 26, 142, 244, 266. 

— Mary, 143. 
-- Mildred, 135. 

— Samuel, 139, 251, 258, 
266. 

— Thornton, 252, 

— William, 129-30. 

— William Augustine, 254, 
258, 263, 266. 

Wayne, "Mad Anthony," 31. 
Webster, Daniel, 60. 
Weems, Parson, 138. 
Weldon, N. C, 75. 
Wellford, Beverley R., 235. 
Wentworth, General, 153. 
Westmoreland County, Va., 

132, 134-5, 138, 147. 
West Virginia, 24. 
Willet, Marinus, 276. 
Williams, Mr., 148. 
Williamsburg, Va., 63, 158, 

216, 217. 
Williamsburg Convention, 217. 
Williams, Robert, 94-5. 
Willis, William, 239. 
Winchester, W. Va., 24, 278. 
Wise's Tavern, Alexandria., 

Va., 42. 
Wooster, David, 68. 
World War, 13. 

Yorkshire, 132. 
Yorktown, Va., 40. 

— Monument, 228. 



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